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"When Twitter acquired Tweetie and made it their official iPhone app last week, dozens of lives and business plans were thrown into turmoil. \nThe third-party app developers and investors who had worked together to create startups around the Twitter platform were blindsided. Some lost an entire business model or were forced to rapidly reconsider their plans, all because Twitter wasn't clear and transparent about its roadmap for developing features and acquiring companies.\nKara Swisher of All Things D moderated an investment panel today at Chirp, the Twitter developer conference. With her were two Twitter board members, Bijan Sabet and Peter Fenton, and investors Mike Hirschland and David Pakman. All were eager to address the issues presented to the VC and startup community by Twitter's situation in particular and about the risks associated with building apps on another company's platform in general.\nComparing Twitter's current attitude to mobsters in a back room, Swisher asked whether developers should be nervous. \"Tension is inherent in the idea of technology platforms,\" said Hirschland. \"Twitter is coming of age and deciding to be a real business. There's a wide highway that the platform wants to own, and it's probably going to be the most profitable spaces. There's not enough clarity on the roadmap.\"\nFenton said of Twitter apps, \"It's no longer time to fill holes. If you're an app developer, you have to differentiate and launch services in a compressed timeline and to create value.\" Sabet added, \"The Tweetie acquisition doesn't mean that other apps aren't going to be successful. There's going to be more innovation and more diversity.\"\nAt this juncture, Seesmic founder Loic LeMeur shouted out from the crowd, \"There is plenty of opportunity for us.\"  He echoed the hopeful tone of many otherwise nervous entrepreneurs.\nSabet said, \"We're going to continue to invest in the Twitter ecosystem. I think there's going to be more opportunity now than ever, there's more areas for developers to innovate.\"\n\"Where are there currently opportunities that won't risk overlapping with Twitter's current or upcoming features? There's a huge amount of data being thrown out by Twitter,\" said Pakman. \"Going through the data and finding value for consumers and businesses seems a lot smarter than making features.\" Fenton noted, \"Workflow-driven applications and analytics apps for businesses[...] The business terrain is very fertile. The consumer side is more open ended.\"\nPakman gave entrepreneurs a hint, as well. \"The 'right time' web is more valuable in some cases than the real-time web. Real-time data is only interesting when I'm actually looking for that information. There's no service today that's giving information when it's really needed. If your company is doing that... I brought my checkbook.\"\n\"Also,\" he continued, \"whenever we see advertising, we think about optimization. Who is going to do that? Will Twitter make that part of the core? Or will that be an opportunity for developers?\"\nHirschland noted, \"This is one of the more exciting platforms around, and I think there will always be venture-backable opportunities, even though we're all feeling a lot of short-term pain due to Twitter's decisions.\"\n\n\nFor more business coverage, follow Mashable Business on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook\n\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2010/04/14/twitter-app-investment/>