Twitter for iPhone hits the App Store

A little over a month after Twitter acquired Atebits, developer of the Tweetie client for iPhone, the microblogging phenom announced the release of Twitter for iPhone, a free application enabling users to tweet, send messages, and share photos, videos and links. "Comprehensive analysis of the Twitter user experience in the iTunes App Store showed very plainly that people were looking for an app from Twitter--we didn't have one so they generally got confused and gave up," writes co-founder Biz Stone on the Twitter Blog. "Obviously, we saw room for improvement." Stone notes that iPhone users can download the app even without a Twitter account and still browse trends, read Top Tweets, follow popular users and discover public tweets from nearby users--of course, the app includes a signup feature as well.

Prior to the Twitter acquisition, Atebits charged $2.99 to download Tweetie. The deal heralded a new era for Twitter, which historically focused on its website and related services while leaving work on mobile software applications to third-party developers. Twitter CEO Evan Williams told The New York Times the startup will continue to build apps and features it needs, even if third-party developers already provide them, adding that Twitter bought search solutions provider Summize in 2008 because it realized it needed a search engine. "There could be other stuff like that, that completes the platform and makes it better," he said. "Since we're still evolving, that may happen more."

For more on Twitter for iPhone:
- read this Twitter Blog entry

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