Mobile Twitter user numbers pick up speed

Post by Steven Cox on 3rd September 2010
 in 3G, Social media, Twitter

The launch of new apps to make Twitter compatible with a range of smartphone operating platforms has paid off handsomely, bringing an increase of more than 60 per cent in the number of people accessing the micro-blogging site through mobile devices.

Apps for the Blackberry and iPhone are now two of the most popular ways of using the service, with one in six of all Twitter users coming via these tools - that represents a trebling in the number of mobile users since the dedicated apps were launched.

The jump in the number of mobile users has helped Twitter's overall user numbers hit 145million.

The service's founder, Evan Williams, said in a blog post that adapting it for mobile use had been a top priority for the service's developers. "We did iPhone user tests and confirmed that even though there was a plethora of third-party Twitter apps, people were having trouble finding and selecting one because none were called ‘Twitter’," Williams wrote.

"For this reason, we acquired Tweetie and turned it into Twitter for iPhone, complete with a new user sign-up experience," he added.

This has resulted in more people discovering and using Twitter - and, more importantly for its supporters, staying active users. Nearly half (46 per cent) of regular users are said to be going to the site via their mobile on at least some of their visits.

And to underline its commitment to becoming an all-channel social media service, Twitter has also launched its first app for the Apple iPad.