Apple's iOS 5 Boosts Twitter Signups by 25% and Wolfram Alpha Searches 20 Fold

[Akshay Masand]

With Apple’s release of iOS 5 for its newer devices and iPhones dating as far back as 2009, the company has had a significant impact on its integration partners. Twitter noted a 25% increase in new accounts and Wolfram Alpha stated that Siri boosted its query volume 20 fold, changing the status quo in search and web services.

After Apple added a single-sign on Twitter integration as a top feature in iOS 5, providing users the ability to plug in their credentials on the system once and then use Twitter services throughout bundled apps (including Safari, Maps, and Photos) along with third-party apps after giving them permission. As a result, Twitter recently announced that after the event, monthly signups for the free service are up 25%, reaching 100 million monthly active users in September, according to reports from TechCrunch.

Twitter’s chief executive noted that daily signups in October had tripled following the release of iOS 5 and he even went as far as calling Apple a “corporate mentor.” It was even noted last month that 40% of the photos shared on Twitter were coming from iOS users utilizing the built-in Twitter integration in iOS 5 photos as well. In fact, iOS 5’s Photo app made it into the top ten photo sharing clients for the service.

Twitter wasn’t the only service affected either. Rather than building its own services from scratch, Apple partnered up with Yelp for local reviews and Wolfram Alpha to deliver direct and authoritative answers to users’ Siri queries. Unlike services such as Google’s ads, Wolfram Research sells apps and collects partnership fees instead. After integrating with Apple’s Siri on the iPhone 4S, Wolfram reported a 20 fold increase in query traffic in the first week alone.



Wolfram Research’s executive director Luc Barthelet told MIT’s Technology Review that Siri enables Apple to provide direct answers in such a way that Google can’t match for users because "what would happen to Google's business model if they just provided answers? They want users to look at the results. That's what makes their ad space valuable." The same report cited senior vice president of the mobile division of Nuance Communications, Michael Thompson, as noting that Siri is “taking away the toll-boot functionality of the search portals.”

Are you amongst the many users who utilize the Twitter integration in iOS 5 and Wolfram Alpha requests on Siri? Have you noticed yourself using the features more often after they had been integrated? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: TechCrunch (1) (2), Technology Review

[Daerid]

Wow! That's fairly impressive...

[SwatPac]

I've been using Wolfram and Twitter for a long time. I can safely say that I use them much more because of the iOS5 integration. Wolfram rapes Google IMHO. I'm glad Apple went with twitter instead of Facebook. If Facebook were a person, I would shoot it in the face point blank. I would do the same thing to Android.

[*T*]

I've been using Wolfram and Twitter for a long time. I can safely say that I use them much more because of the iOS5 integration. Wolfram rapes Google IMHO. I'm glad Apple went with twitter instead of Facebook. If Facebook were a person, I would shoot it in the face point blank. I would do the same thing to Android.

Sorry if I sound ignorant, but what does IMHO mean?

[StayyyFlyyy]

Sorry if I sound ignorant, but what does IMHO mean?

In my honest opinion

[scroogelives]

Have shared photos more via twitter and shared a few more links would like to see the same option added for Facebook or is there a tweak that can deliver that???

[R.Mortera]

Well that's good.

[duromega]

I have no twitter but I'm gonna have to sing up soon to write to musclenerd

[royalnewjersey]