A tiny fraction of Twitter users use third-party apps. So put yourself in the shoes of a bean counter…
"We can't serve ads. We can't sell a subscription. The API costs money. If we kill the clients we lose a few users, but some will stick around."
It makes sense on a spreadsheet, but misses the users' value. They produce the content that brings you to Twitter.
Killing clients is exactly what you expect from people who just don't get social networks, and too arrogant to listen to those who do.
@sandofsky This worked on me before I left the birdsite. I used Echofon and other 3rd party apps to read Twitter instead of the native client for years (we're talking from 2012 or so)--including the incredible and defunct Flock browser (I think from Opera?)--but over time the functionality diminished and I moved back to the native client a few years ago.
All for naught in the end as I've left and see no path to going back--but not a surprise this might be a final gasp to claw back some profit by shutting down the APIs.
Ben Sandofsky
keplerniko