Instead, Costolo came to explain how he thinks the Twitter brand works best: when it’s invisible, and everywhere.
In response to a questioner who referenced the so-called “Facebook phone” and the INQ, and asked if he could ever see a Twitter-branded smartphone, Costolo’s answer was short and sweet: No.
“Twitter already works on every device you’re going to hear about this week,” Costolo told the audience of mobile industry elites. “Tweets flow seamlessly across platforms; that’s w hat we’re trying to accomplish.”
Throughout his hour-long address, Costolo compared Twitter to water — a utility so useful and ubiquitous, we almost forget it’s there. We don’t need to re-learn how to use it in different contexts.
And in the case of Egypt, where the country-wide protest lost access to Twitter as part of a wider Internet blackout, Costolo said, “People in the desert will always find a way to water.” (Indeed, Google and Twitter provided a voice-to-tweet service that kept protesters in touch.)
That’s why there will never, under Costolo’s leadership, be such a thing as a “Twitter phone”. Water doesn’t need branding. It’s water. Everyone needs it every day. It isn’t just mobile (just 40% of Twitter users use it on a phone, Costelo revealed). It may be bigger than mobile, in some measures.
So perhaps Costolo, despite his protestations, did launch a new produ ct today — the...
