Friday
Oct302009
The Problem With Twitter Apps? Twitter Itself
Friday, October 30, 2009 at 7:05PM 
The more people that get Twitter lists, the more tweets I see just like @dregar's.
This should scare all Twitter clients, including the market leaders Tweetdeck and Seesmic.
Twitter Lists have filled most users biggest need, organizing their Twitter followers into lists and since most people go too Twitter.com directly to do their tweeting, what reason would they have to seek out apps that do so?
This doesn't mean Tweetdeck and Seesmic are completely dead yet, they still offer a Twitter experience that is far different from that of Twitter web itself, even with lists. Also, if I know dedicated Tweetdeck users like I think I do *cough* @alex *cough* they will not be moving to Twitter web solely because of lists.
But with a relative amount of confidence, I believe we can count out a Twitter client I have praised many times, Brizzly.
Already, Brizzly as a Twitter client has lost a ton of its value with Twitter introducing lists. Brizzly might offer a few nifty features that are helpful, but they still don't differentiate enough for people to migrate to it from Twitter web as their client of choice. There does exist one saving grace for Brizzly, Facebook integration, which might help Brizzly keeps it value in the Twitter client market.
Eventually though, all Twitter clients will experience the strain of Twitter adding features that were once prized among Twitter clients and their users. It will come to a point that apps such as Tweetdeck and Seesmic will experience a declining Twitter client market share and will end up with a small, yet loyal set of users. Obviously that is a problem for monetization.
Only truly innovative Twitter clients will succeed and so far, I do not know of any truly innovative Twitter clients.
Reader Comments (12)
What would be the characteristics of a innovative Twitter client?
What would be the characteristics of a innovative Twitter client?
Tweetdeck will keep me around for a while with their new notifier - love it! Also, it's gonna be a lot of work to move my Tweetdeck groups over to twitter lists. Hopefully a tool comes out to do this.
Tweetdeck will keep me around for a while with their new notifier - love it! Also, it's gonna be a lot of work to move my Tweetdeck groups over to twitter lists. Hopefully a tool comes out to do this.
No idea, bro. The current Twitter apps I am seeing compared to Twitter web just don't seem, to me, all that innovative. But of course, I don't speak for all when I say this :)
No idea, bro. The current Twitter apps I am seeing compared to Twitter web just don't seem, to me, all that innovative. But of course, I don't speak for all when I say this :)
http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/10/tweetdeck-promises-to-integrate-twitter.html" rel="nofollow">http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/10/tweetdeck-pro... - Tweetdeck is going all out integrating lists man :)
http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/10/tweetdeck-promises-to-integrate-twitter.html" rel="nofollow">http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/10/tweetdeck-pro... - Tweetdeck is going all out integrating lists man :)
I wonder if there is room for much innovation. Not that I agree with the current state of applications.
I wonder if there is room for much innovation. Not that I agree with the current state of applications.
Well, is not only a notifier. TweetDeck must improve a lot more to become a serious tool. Except the column concept - which was a great idea - nothing else was innovative in TweetDeck.
Well, is not only a notifier. TweetDeck must improve a lot more to become a serious tool. Except the column concept - which was a great idea - nothing else was innovative in TweetDeck.