Twitter turns to feature phones for world domination Twitter has thrown a bone to users stuck with feature phones, odd and/or old browsers or low-bandwidth connections to the Net by updating its mobile webapp. And along the way it may also have made an important strategic move to capture users in the developing world. The new mobile.twitter.com pictured below is said to require …
They deliver "up to 140 character" messages, but delivery on their website requires loading quite a bit more, and doesn't even display anything when javascript isn't enabled. Even then it often hangs and doesn't deliver.
Which is to say, I don't think I'd trust them reinvent sms in a sensible way on any phone. The idea isn't that bad in the loopy twodotoh way that substitutes for logic and/or common sense these days --they reinvented sms for the web, and now are bringing it back to the original sms platform-- but they'll be burning lots more bandwidth in the process, running up costs for the carriers, and possibly costing them sms revenue. Not sure if, on balance, the latter will be amused.
I've now bookmarked this on my mobile browser... for the few times I use Twitter.
The idea of "feature" phones is really out of date these days - on a technical analysis, both Nokia's Series40 and Samsung's Bada check all the boxes for being called "Smartphones" (especially if you accept the argument that any iOS version below 4 was a smartphone OS). Very soon, this distinction will be more a question of market positioning than technical ability.
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