T'what Know...T'witter Developers

If I had a dollar …

So the big talk this weekend is that Twitter has an iPhone and Blackberry app… woooo …

I would too with $100 million cash in the bank. I might have even lined that up a week or so after closing $100 million a year back.

What I would NOT do is charge people to attend Chirp (Update:good post here I just saw ), which is also 18 months late, but who’s counting. I will use it as an excuse to camp out at True Venture’s office in San Francisco to do some meetings because people are in town. I definitely don’t need to pay to have Twitter tell me what may be their plans. It will be live tweeted by Scoble. There have been freaking millions left on the table in search to have offered up free tickets and a bigger venue for the event. But, that’s cranky old Howard. I love Twitter, I want Twitter to thrive. I also get pissed about these small details.

With respect to Twitter competing downstream, come on, who do not see this coming?

I have investments in Tweetdeck and Bit.ly and I would not take them back or sell them because Dave Winer hates URL shorteners or because Twitter is competing with me. When I make investments, I initiate the wire (I think), I sign the documents. In the case of Bit.ly and Tweetdeck I knew this day was coming and only shocked it took so long. I invested in the products and the opportunity and the teams. I also believed that valuations were crucial. For example, if you come to me with a Twitter app tomorrow, you paying me, might not be low enough.

Apple, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Adobe…are at thermo nuclear level war. These little Twitter wars are kid’s stuff. I am just happy to be in the battle. That’s what it is all about if you are lucky enough to be breathing, investing and not having to fight real wars.

Game on .