Recent announcements by Twitter and Apple have significantly impacted each company’s developer network (more about Apple in a few days).
As many of you know, Twitter decided a few days ago to acquire the company that makes and sells Tweetie, a popular iPhone client. Prior to this acquisition, Twitter didn’t have its own iPhone application. In part, this was because a healthy and broad third party ecosystem of Twitter apps was developing around Twitter (most of the third party developers, like Twitter, had no revenue model).
Twitter’s decision has caused many in the Twitter developer ecosystem to wonder about their future and whether Twitter’s continued search for a revenue model would put more Twitter-dependent companies out of business.
Twitter’s announcement (and the reaction from Twitter’s developer community) highlights something that’s always been a risk: tying your business to that of another company. I discuss this risk in the following short video.
What do you think? Do you think companies should ever feel comfortable tying their future to a single ecosystem?


