Melon Corporate Blog
Apple to buy Twitter?
I read an interesting intro this morning from ITWire:
“Twitter is the hottest Internet social networking property right now. Apple has a ton of spare cash. So are the rumours true, can Apple really be about to buy Twitter for US $700 million?”
I barely got past the heading. This is ridiculous, right? What would Apple have to gain from purchasing Twitter? They just don’t fit together.
Somehow I didn’t think there was any credence to this rumour… but then I started to think about what exactly Apple could do with the 140 character social phenomenon.
At first glance the thought of Apple buying Twitter seems preposterous. For starters, Apple is renowned for doing its own thing - and would be more likely to develop their own micro-blogging tool.
Secondly, Apple has stated that whilst it is sitting on HUGE reserves of cash - that’s what they like to do - conservatively investing to increase its profits and shares.
Thirdly, Apple has a very particular business and branding model - of which the remarkably messy Twitter falls far short of.
And finally, Twitter is well known for not having made a cent of profit since launching. Why would you purchase a business without any plans on how to monetise it?
So what would Apple gain from this acquisition?
Let’s put aside the increasingly expanding user-base (currently at 25 million users and growing weekly), the explosion of the social awareness of micro-blogging and the simple method of staying in touch, sharing links and advertising your thoughts.
Knowing Apple they will find a way to tie this in with their products and, more importantly, their software…
See where I’m going with this?
Apple has long lauded the amazing simplicity and power of their iLife suite. Now imagine twitter integrated into this.
- Upload the latest photos from your camera to iPhoto and then single click to share your favourites with your followers.
- Lay down a cool tune in Garage Band and get feedback instantly from friends.
- Your favourite song comes on in iTunes and you just have to let everybody know - click the tweet button to send the song details to twitter, along with a link back to the iTunes store so others can purchase it.
I can see the ad-line now… “It’s your iLife… connected”.
As crazy as it initially seems, Apple buying Twitter may turn out to be a very nice prospect.
What are your thoughts?
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Twitter is proving to be such a versatile tool that almost any smart company could do something useful for it.
Culturally though Twitter seems to be very different to Apple.
I do hope though that Twitter stays independent for some time longer to see how their innovation unravels.
Kevin
By Kevin Garber on 07 05 2009
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