screenshots via Twitpic
TwitPic, the photo sharing service for people who use Twitter, announced Monday that it had released its first application for the iPhone.
The free application might seem a little late to the photo-sharing game, but Twitpic is hoping that free and simple-to-use editing features will be enticing enough to stay relevant in the explosive mobile image-sharing genre.
Twitpic said on the company’s blog that the new application will allow people to easily share and see photos and videos on Twitter and easily add public comments. A free built-in photo editor will allow people to polish photos through a number of tools, including cropping and visual filters. People can also see the most popular pictures shared each day.
Noah Everett, the founder of Twitpic, told the VentureBeat blog that the company has been profitable for some time — specifically making money from advertising. Mr. Everett also said he believes the free mobile application will spur more growth with users of the service.
But Twitpic has a number of hefty competitors to deal with, including Instagram, which was recently acquired by Facebook for $1 billion and is growing by millions of users a month. There are also dozens of free photo-editing apps and social image-sharing services available for the iPhone.
Twitpic was originally started in 2008 by Mr. Everett, after he was unable to easily share a picture on Twitter. At the time people were forced to add pictures to other service and then link back to the bite-sized social network.