Hot on the heels of the launch of an official BlackBerry Twitter client, Twitter is introducing an official app for the iPhone. The difference is that while the BlackBerry app was developed by Twitter and Research in Motion, the company behind the BlackBerry hardware, it’s not Apple that’s putting its stamp of approval on Twitter for the iPhone — it’s Twitter.
The microblogging service announced that it has acquired Atebits, the company that has been producing the popular iPhone Twitter app Tweetie.
Tweetie is one of the most popular Twitter clients for the iPhone. Artebits sells it for $2.99, but Twitter will rename it Twitter for iPhone and release it as a free download within the next few weeks — which is going to make it difficult for other third party Twitter clients to make a dent on the iPhone.
Seesmic founder Loic Le Meur says he’s not too worried though. Seesmic doesn’t yet offer a Twitter client for the iPhone, but one is reportedly in the works. The company’s software also lets you interact with Faceboook and dozens of other social networks. The app is available for Android, Blackberry, the Web, and desktop computers as well — which means there’s a decent chance that Seesmic won’t go out of business just because Twitter is launching an official app for one of those platforms.