Twitter buys iPhone client Tweetie

Twitter has picked up its very own app, buying iPhone client Tweetie.

Despite being created for mobile devices - hence the text-friendly 140-character limit - Twitter hasn't had its own app to offer the world.

That's set to change with the acquisition of Tweetie, an app for the iPhone, which the popular social networking site picked up after "careful analysis of the Twitter user experience in the iTunes AppStore revealed massive room for improvement."

"People everywhere should be able to access Twitter without friction or confusion," wrote Twitter chief executive Evan Williams in a blog post. "People are looking for an app from Twitter, and they're not finding one. So, they get confused and give up."

To remedy that, the firm has acquired Tweetie. The client will now be renamed "Twitter for iPhone," to make it even easier to find, and within a few weeks will be available free after previously costing $2.99.

The app's developer Loren Brichter will head over to Twitter, where he'll work on creating a Twitter app specifically for the newly-launched iPad.

The move is an intriguing one after Twitter investor Fred Wilson last week warned that third-party client developers should focus their efforts on developing games and analytics apps - rather than mobile or desktop clients - as when Twitter steps into that arena itself third-party developer's work will likely fall by the wayside.

"I think the time for filling the holes in the Twitter service has come and gone... I believe we are entering a new phase now," he wrote.

Williams was careful to stress that today's announcement would be good news for developers. "As we work to provide the best possible Twitter experience on all of the major mobile platforms, momentum will increase dramatically," he wrote.

"Millions more active, engaged, mobile users means more opportunities for all of us," he added.

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