Twitter Launches Official iPhone App

Micro-blog site Twitter has finally released an app for iPhone and iPod Touch devices application, having chosen to deliver the service first on Blackberry and Android devices.

The Twitter iPhone app can make and read tweets, as well as searching all tweets, viewing top tweets, browsing users and finding them by location. It is available for free on the iTunes App Store.

No need for a Twitter account

Even users with no Twitter account can download the app from the iTunes store to see Top Tweets, find users and read public tweets as soon as they download it.

The app is essentially version 3.0 of the Tweetie, iPhone application, which Twitter gained when it acquired startup Atebits April 9.

The Tweetie buy, announced just one day after Research in Motion launched the public beta of a Twitter for BlackBerry application, caused some consternation among third-party application developers in conjunction with a blog post by Twitter investor Fred Wilson.

Certain third-party Twitter apps, including Tweetie and Twitpic, could be acquired or phased out once Twitter begins filling holes in its young platform, said Wilson.

Wilson’s article, viewed in light of Twitter’s initial referencing of the Blackberry app as the official Twitter for Blackberry app and the subsequent purchase of Atebits for Tweetie, caused Twitter platform developers to question the system.

Twitter Platform Director Ryan Sarver moved to quell concerns that Twitter is trying cut off developers’ lifelines by buying some Twitter tools that would make it impossible for others to compete. Sarver also moved to allay fears at the Chirp developer conference.

Two weeks later, Twitter launched Twitter for Android, contributing to a growing store of apps for that platform, but calling into question the viability of other apps such as Twidroid.

Twitter also open-sourced the code for this app, in keeping with the tenets of the Android platform. by contrast, in keeping with the iPhone platform, Twitter for iPhone will not be open sourced.

The mobile application story doesn’t end with Twitter for iPhone 3.0. Twitter is also creating a Twitter for iPad app, but the company hasn’t said when it will release that program.