Apple hasn’t really got much of a presence of Twitter (besides a scattering of iTunes Twitter accounts) so it was surprising to see iOS head honcho Scott Forstall has just signed up. His @forstall account is only following one person (US chatshow host and celebrity ginger Conan O’Brien) but he’s already racked up 16,785 followers despite not having penned a single tweet so far.
It’s not clear why Forstall has joined Twitter. Could he be monitoring the public’s reaction to iPhone 4? Or planning future iOS 4 features? While we wait to see what he and Apple might do with their new Twitter outpost, here’s our five favourite tweeting tech execs…
Eric Schmidt
Twitter name: @ericschmidt
Sample tweet: “Article on jobs in the Washington Post by (me!) http://bit.ly/cG6vGW”
With a profile pic showing him clad in a flak jacket during a trip to Iraq, the Google CEO sticks to tweeting interesting articles and occasionally hinting at upcoming Google events (he tipped followers off about its Superbowl commercial ahead of time).
Bill Gates
Twitter name: @billgates
Sample tweet: “Kosi River near a ferry landing. A difficult area for polio prevention, but real progress being made… http://twitpic.com/1nbavw”
Like Schmidt, Gates doesn’t get personal much preferring instead to promote his charity work with the Gates Foundation. We’ve still got our fingers-crossed that one day he slips up and tweets a critique of Steve Ballmer or a TwitPic of himself lounging in a bath of money.
Biz Stone
Twitter name: @biz
Sample tweet: “Me: ‘It smells weird in the hallway.’ Wife: ‘It’s the skunks in the guest room.’ Me: ‘Yes, that would explain it.’”
Fittingly, Twitter’s co-founder uses the site for more than just slinging up links to articles he likes. As well as getting a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes goings on at Twitter, he shares snippets of his personal life, including his wife (who works at an animal hospital) bringing baby skunks home!
Mark Zuckerberg
Twitter name: @finkd
Sample tweet: “In NY. Fink out.”
The Facebook boss hasn’t tweeted since March of last year but we’ve put him on the list in the vain hope that he’ll grab his iPhone and take to Twitter again. And while he’s at it, he can encourage his video chat buddy David Cameron to get involved too.
CEO Steve Jobs
Twitter name: @ceostevejobs
Sample tweet: “We may have to recall the new iPhone. This, I did not expect.”
Steve Jobs may prefer to stick to his infamous emails but this parody account gets an honourable mention for managing to fool The Daily Mail into publishing a story claiming an iPhone 4 recall was on the way. And with the iPhone 4 recall odds slashed at the bookies, maybe it’ll turn out to be prophetic too. Fake Steve Jobs (@FSJ) has an account too but sadly it’s been sat dormant since 2008.
Let us know: which tweeting tech execs do you follow? Are there other folk from famous tech brands we should be following?
