I don't think they care. Twitter has reached such mainstream exposure even if every person in the tech world leaves them they have enough clout to remain relevant because large news organisations use it as does the general population.
What pisses me off is that twitter did have the opportunity to be an agent for change such as in the Arab spring. Im sure they could have made up revenue by charging for their API rather then cutting it off. Maybe not as much through controlling the entire ecosystem but at least they would have had a higher purpose then turning a huge profit (perhaps they could have just enough to keep the lights on?).
App.net can never become this change agent as they will be too expensive for most in developing countries to use.
The tumblr crowd is not a tech crowd, though. I can guarantee my daughter will side with tumblr over twitter on this, and, as a result, will never have a twitter account.
Twitter API thinks it is a too big to fail social API; and begins to think short term profitability. Like the banking system with subprimes, they believe the mass will always save them from fail. look one blogpost talking about it here http://api500.tumblr.com/post/27360838922/apis-too-big-to-fa... with other ones like GoogleMaps or Facebook.
Indeed, it seems that, cocky and scared, they decided that since they are so big and popular, they don't need 3rd party developers anymore, or at least not as much as they used to. It is a case of digging your own grave by optimizing for short-term gain and then losing in the long run. Pity.
What pisses me off is that twitter did have the opportunity to be an agent for change such as in the Arab spring. Im sure they could have made up revenue by charging for their API rather then cutting it off. Maybe not as much through controlling the entire ecosystem but at least they would have had a higher purpose then turning a huge profit (perhaps they could have just enough to keep the lights on?).
App.net can never become this change agent as they will be too expensive for most in developing countries to use.