Thoughts on whether Twitter will actually maintain Tweetdeck post-acquisition?

For me, I have a feeling they will mothball it for three reasons:

a) The aesthetic and visual approach of Tweetdeck doesn't fit in with the way Twitter wants its product used

b) Twitter are looking to staff up a London office, it would make sense to use Tweetdeck (based in London) as that office (EDIT: the implication being that said staff would work on Twitter related business, not Tweetdeck)

c) This was all about a tactical blocking of UberMedia, not a strategic product acquisition.

Regardless of what happens to the 'main' Tweetdeck product, the ancillary iPhone and Android apps must surely be slated to be shelved given they compete directly with Twitters existing offering... I can only assume this is good news for the other mobile apps out there, like TweetCaster for Android

A company that doesn't make money buys another company that doesn't make money. The Silicon Valley economy exists entirely on its own with no relation to the "real world".

TweetDeck had ~10% of Twitters user base as users, and they sold for a mere $50M. This should speak volumes about "not being someones bitch."

This also means that Twitter could now have, if it chooses, an official branded client that runs on Windows.

When they announced Twitter for Mac, they said:

"We acquired atebits with a focus on launching our own Twitter iPhone application. Since then, we’ve been asked repeatedly for a new version of Tweetie for Mac. We decided that the new version fits well into our goal of ensuring that mainstream users will have the best possible experience on popular platforms."

Mobile platforms may be the future, and an OS X client allows them to show off a bit and gain influential users, but the sheer size of the Windows user-base is not to be sniffed at.

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It's nuts to see the bird icon I made coupled with a product go this far. Go Tweetdeck! :)

Could some share his opinion about other players in the Twitter ecosystem? I am thinking about Seesmic that has acquried ping.fm, is bonding heavily with Salesforce.com.

Are they still a relevant player in the field?

TweetDeck is also the only mainstream Twitter client I could find that supports Identi.ca (and other federated Status.net derivatives).

I'm betting on s/is/was/ very soon.

Ubermedia really got screwed on this one.

They went from having significant leverage and controlling a lot of tweeting marketshare...to losing all that.

Twitter is awesome and all but should focus on some sort of revenue to pay back investors...

I really hope twitter decides to keep developing tweet deck...

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The day Twitter reports MAKING $50 million dollars rather than SPENDING $50 million dollars will cause celebration on the streets filled with champagne and delight...until then, they're just a giant spam channel with a lot of VC