Twitter, the social networking company, purchased TweetDeck, the Twitter application company, back in May of 2011. Today, the Twitter-owned TweetDeck announced that it was discontinuing support for the venerable stand-alone Twitter clients on Android, iOS, and desktop computers via Adobe AIR, ostensibly to concentrate on the TweetDeck web experience.

While many current users of the clients may disagree, Twitter feels that its user base is both better served on the web, and that the decision mirrors the real-time activity of those very same TweetDeck customers.

“Over the past few years,” says the TweetDeck posterous website, “we’ve seen a steady trend towards people using TweetDeck on their computers and Twitter on their mobile devices. This trend coincides with an increased investment in Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android –– adding photo filters and other editing capabilities, revamping user profiles and enhancing search.”

In essence, then, TweetDeck, offering such things as customizable, filtered columns and some other user interface innovations, will no longer be accessible via TweetDeck AIR, TweetDeck for Android, or TweetDeck for iPhone. Instead, users will need to head over to the TweetDeck web client, or use a newly released Chrome app. For users who want Twitter on their Android or iPhone smartphone, they’ll need to use the official Twitter app, or another third-party app like Tweetbot.

The Mac and PC stand-alone apps, as opposed to the AIR apps, will not go away, but will no longer get new features first.

• SourceTweetDeck Posterous
• ViaTechnoBuffalo