Well, what could that mean from a few points of view.   First the user.  I think BusinessInsider did a pretty good job with their mockup showing what it could mean to have fully integrated twitter support in iOS. From a design point of view, it will be pretty minimal, an extra button on a menu and one more share option. I will place some of the shots at the end of this post, but you can view them all from the link above.

For Twitter its HUGE!  To have the ability to read and write tweets embedded in the phone will make socMed sharing just as easy and sharing vie email or MMS. This could give Twitter that extra edge to level up with Facebook. (unless we will hear of a Facebook integration in the near term).  Also, if Apple is going to go through the trouble of integrating twitter API calls, and the required OAuth to make it happen, then we could see simple native twitter functionality integrated into other elements of the iphone including a type of address book as seen in my hobby app TwittFilter.com

Finally to the programmer.  Currently, adding twitter API support to any iOS app is less then painless, mostly because of OAuth, XAuth and the changes around authentication.  If there were simple class calls the programmer could make to gain access to the Twitter API, you could see a massive explosion of various apps including some form of socMed sharing via Twitter.  Another big win for Twitter.

Now what does Apple get out of all this?  At first glance, seems like nothing.  But what if integration and cooperation between Twitter and Apple continue?  Perhaps one of them has a revenue plan that could shin both of their pennies. … or given Apples massive money and lack of presence in socMed, partial buy out?

Either way, this little announcement could imply something much bigger then just a button showing up in a menu popup.  This is something to watch.  And how facebook reacts will be noteworthy as well.

Anyway, here are some pics from BI