Nothing that’s happening now should be a surprise…for example, many Twitter cognoscenti have maintained that check-ins will become a commodity. People have the right to be upset if Twitter starts getting in their business — heck, I’ve been there.

But Dunbar’s Number isn’t just about the number of relationships a person can maintain at the same time. Consumer goods companies know that people only have so much attention they can allocate to any application, whether it is TV or Twitter. Blessing “approved” clients makes it tons easier for newbies to get started with Twitter, enabling them to focus more on “what can this do for me” than “which client should I use”.