Carbon, has left the building...
Say what you will about Twitter clients, but the developers behind them can be a finicky bunch from our experience. That notion is being reinforced again today with the announcement that Carbon has been pulled from the Windows Phone Store for good.
The man behind Carbon, M.Saleh Esmaeili, took to his Google+ page to discuss what had happened after his interview on our podcast, Iterate. In short, Carbon was never meant to be multi-platform.
Carbon for Android expected to launch in days
For those of you who remember, Carbon started off as a hit Twitter client on webOS but then drifted to Windows Phone during what seemed like an appropriate transition time for both mobile OS’s. And although Carbon did well, sitting near the top of the social category for nearly 60 days and even earning some heaps of praise form us, the Carbon team just never felt at home. Main complaint? Just not enough users.
Now, in an interesting twist, M.Saleh Esmaeili is getting ready to launch Carbon on Android and even though it remains to be seen if can actually succeed, he’s already declared Android as his new home.
Back at the end of August, the @CarbonWP Twtiter account noted they were looking to re-write the app and that in fact, it was not doomed. Responding to a question about updates for the Windows Phone clieint:
"we're rewriting the app as it was based on slow/unperformant base, it'll take a while, we're looking for WP devs/talent too..."
We’re not sure how well that will work out as Android is a mine field of Twitter clients, some popular hits and a ton of duds and it begs the question—can that ecosystem bare yet-another-Twitter client? We sure hope so as Carbon for Windows Phone is no longer available and it sounds like that team has burned their bridges with Microsoft’s OS, despite their affection for the OS.
Of course, with Twitter as a company locking down their APIs and exerting more control over the user experience, we know from some devs via personal contact that it’s having a chilling effect on their commitment to the making Twitter apps.
Is that a bad thing? We’re not so sure as the myriad of Twitter apps on the Store, even for Windows Phone, has become a bit overwhelming.
Back to Carbon, we wish M.Saleh Esmaeili the best of luck with Android--we always enjoyed Carbon, even if development trickled off in the last few months. As for those of you who forked down $1.99 for Carbon and expected more than 7 months of service, we feel for ya...
What are your thoughts on Carbon leaving the Windows Phone platform? Vote below and sound off in comments.
