About a month ago, the very popular Twitter client (arguably the most popular), TweetDeck, announced that they were working on Android and BlackBerry specific iterations of its application. Since the application is already available for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and the iPad, it would only be a matter of time before TweetDeck had to begin developing for other platforms to keep up with demand.
Today I was skimming through my TweetDeck timelines and noticed a tweet from TweetDeck itself saying, “A TweetDeck For Every Occasion.” This sounded pretty juicy to me so I clicked the provided link only to find that the juice I had expected was, in fact, soured. It was an update on the development of TweetDeck for other platforms. It was also an update claiming that they will be switching gears, with a very business-smart approach. TweetDeck is in the process of developing a cross-platform, fully functioning mobile TweetDeck. With HTML5 just around the corner, the TweetDeck development team has used that to their advantage. They're going to create a mobile version of TweetDeck that you can access through your internet browser on your phone...any phone.
While it sounds cool to begin with, it suddenly crossed my mind that for heavy users, this could be a bad move on TweetDeck's part. They said that without the need to install an application on to your phone, you are freeing up valuable resources, saving battery, and improving overall performance of your phone. This may be true, but for people that are constantly going to be using Twitter from their phone, a browser-based Twitter client will more than likely grow to be very annoying. One thing I absolutely love about my BlackBerry is the fact that within a lot of applications I can use my keyboard for hotkeys and shortcuts. Within the native BlackBerry browser, there are already designated shortcuts, meaning that with a bowser-based Twitter client, there is no hope of any hotkeys. Also, BlackBerry is known for its less-than-desirable browser. I would much rather have a TweetDeck application for my Android phones, BlackBerrys, Pre Plus, etc. While it will mean open availability to everyone with access to a browser, it doesn't sound to be the most effective way to offer their awesome client to everyone. Hopefully, they're not canning the development for platform-specific applications.
We truly won't know until its release and we get some hands-on time with it, but after this update, I'm no longer excited for TweetDeck on my BlackBerry or Nexus One, not in that form. What's your take on it?
