Everyone knows how successful and revolutionary twitter is. However, if you look closely at Twitter’s history, you will notice that the company has reached this level primarily because of its API. That’s right, Twitter (the company) did not offer any desktop or mobile app developed by them until now. Their primary product is the twitter web interface and the API.
People have used the API is all kinds of ways. Heck, there is an app which tells you the sleeping time of people based on their tweeting hours.
Twitter announced today that they have acquired Atebits, a one man startup company owned by Loren Brichter. Atebits product, Tweetie for iPhone will be renamed to Twitter for iPhone and will be made available for free as opposed to its currently price of $2.99. This move is understandable as Tweetie is ubiquitously touted as the best twitter app for the iPhone. There are plans to release an iPad version soon.
According to twitter founder Evan Williams, the driving factor behind this move was: people going to iTunes, searching for a twitter app, not finding one and then giving up. The reason behind this is – Twitter does not allow anyone to use the words “tweet” and “twitter” in their product names. Now that they own the product themselves, they can rename it to whatever they want:
Careful analysis of the Twitter user experience in the iTunes AppStore revealed massive room for improvement. People are looking for an app from Twitter, and they’re not finding one. So, they get confused and give up. It’s important that we optimize for user benefit and create an awesome experience.
No word on what is going to happen to Atebits’s Mac app for twitter also called as Tweetie.
[via twitter blog]
