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Apple SVP Of iOS Scott Forstall Joins Twitter

July 14, 2010

An interesting thing happened on Twitter last night; Scott Forstall, Apple's senior vice president of iOS Software got himself a Twitter account. It's verified, so we know it's him and while he didn't tweet anything yet, he's now following someone: Conan O'Brien.

Why do we even mention this? It's huge! But, seriously, it's very unorthodox for Apple's top management to sign up for any sort of social network. Especially for the guy in charge of our favorite mobile OS. For now, we don't know what his intentions are, and maybe we'll never find out, but here are some ideas to think about.

Maybe he's just checking it out and got Steve's blessing to be able to do it officially. After all, Twitter has its own page on Apple and Twitter is very popular on the iPhone too. Some folks are speculating it could be to test some new integration of Twitter into iOS. However, there's no need to get an official verified account to do that, right?

Another possibility is that he's looking to drum up some PR, just like Steve. Perhaps, to differentiate himself, he has decided to use Twitter to reply to us fanboys. Since Steve's replies end up on the web anyway, making them public like this could be a good idea. Also, if he adopts Steve's email reply style, 140 characters will be more than enough. Furthermore, who will answer our emails and complaints once Steve is gone (not a pleasant thing to consider)? This could be just another move towards Steve's succession.

Lastly, two little fun facts about his arrival on Twitter. First, he got his bio wrong, at first it stated iPhone OS instead of iOS. We forgive you Scott, as we're all still having a hard time making the switch as well. Second, the only person he is following is Conan O'Brien, whose last tweet was:

"I found a huge design flaw in my new iPhone. People get angry when I talk on it during a funeral."

Anyway, what are your thoughts?

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