Do you tweet? If you do, the number of Twitter clients can be bewildering. Read on to find out which ones you can choose from for your desktop, notebook and phone.

As a social phenomenon Twitter has become nothing short of astonishing. With a reported 75m accounts, this represents over a one thousand per cent growth rate in just one year, with around one-third of the Twitter user base being based in the USA.

With some 50m tweets written on a daily basis, users that begin by using the official Twitter website to post their tweets, quickly move to a third-party client. With thousands of Twitter applications available, choosing the right one for your needs is now vitally important.

Platform frenzy

Whether you use your smartphone or computer to tweet, the numbers of applications you can use to compose, track, search and send your tweet grows on a daily basis. Choosing the right Twitter client becomes just as important as the content of the tweets themselves.

All of the major smartphone operating systems have a plethora of Twitter clients to choose from. In fact, when the Blackberry Twitter app launched, it became solely responsible for a seven per cent increase in Twitter traffic. But most users begin with a Twitter client on their PC/Mac desktop or notebook computer.

Some of the most popular Twitter clients on the desktop include: TweetDeck that is also available for the iPhone, iPad and Linux desktops. The ability to monitor multiple Twitter accounts and also integrate your Facebook and MySpace accounts makes this Twitter client versatile.

If the interface to TweetDeck is too complex, Brizzly has the look and feel of the official Twitter website, with the added bonus of also allowing access to your Facebook page as well. Another fast and simple Twitter client is Seesmic. Available for Mac, PC and iPhone the interface looks similar to TweetDeck if a little less cluttered.

Forsaking the usual column-based interface is OrSiSo that is unusual in that it organises your friends into circles with your closest friends in your inner circle with acquaintances in outer circles. You can even have different groups for work and family. As with all good clients, you can include data from LinkedIn, Flickr and Facebook. You'll need to install Adobe AIR if you want to use this application on your Mac or Windows desktop. You'll also need AIR installed to use twhirl.

Phone tweeting

Outside of the Windows or Mac desktops, the smartphone reins supreme. The Blackberry and iPhone clearly lead the market, but this doesn't mean that other platforms can't get tweeting. If you want to tweet and have an Android phone, TwitterDroid is certainly your first port of all. Now in full alpha testing, if you happen to like Twitterific, TwitterDroid is a clone of that application designed for Android smartphones. Also available is Twidroid that offers a free and pro version for USD 3.99.

If you are using a Windows Mobile phone, a number of Twitter clients have been developed. Pocketwit and ceTwit offer very basic functionality. More polished applications are available from moTweets and Twikini. And if you're looking for a free Open Source Windows Mobile Twitter client, Quakk could fit the bill.

Perhaps the most anticipated off all Twitter clients are those that can be used with the handsets from Blackberry. RIM have released their own Twitter client that can be downloaded from their website. It enables tweets that are pushed to the handset to be responded to. Also, you can easily re-tweet, and do searches of Twitter directly on the handset.

Other Twitter clients for Blackberry that you could consider include: Seesmic, TweetGenius for USD 7.99, Blackbird, Twibble, TwitterBerry and Twixtreme.

iPhone comethh

Outside of the Blackberry, Apple's iPhone has rapidly captured a large slice of the smartphone market. The iPhone itself is the perfect companion for Twitter aficionados. And not surprisingly, the development community has been working overtime to create Twitter clients just for this handset.

Twitter applications for the iPhone include the much-publicised Twitteriffic that is also available for the Mac desktop. Other contenders to try include: Hahlo 4, Twinkle from Tapulous, Twitterlator, TweetDeck and NatsuLion.

Twittervision offers a unique map-based Twitter client you may find rather addictive. It works much better on the larger screen of your notebook however. And Tweet n Go is fast and efficient.

Any business travellers that want to adopt the iPad and would like to Tweet on Apple's latest wonder device have a number of options. Many of the well- developed iPhone or Mac OS Twitter clients will also run on the iPad as well. Good examples include Twittelator, TweetDeck, Twifferific, Twitepad and ShinyTweet.

How to choose

Clearly the best way to choose the Twitter client for your needs is through some rigorous testing. Many users will have a favourite desktop Twitter client they can simply move to their smartphone. Developers of Twitter clients are rapidly creating versions of their applications that run all the popular smartphones, desktop operating systems and of course on new devices like the iPad.

With most twitter clients costing absolutely nothing to try out, gathering your top three for a shootout is a good way of seeing which clients actually delivers the Tweeting experience you're looking for. One area that users should look out for is iPhone Twitter Apps that simply upscale to fill the iPad's screen. This isn't ideal. Always try and look for an iPad-native Twitter Apps to ensure you maintain the excellent viewing experience you're now used to when using the iPad.

And many Twitter clients have the capability to track any other social networks you use. From Facebook to LinkedIn, a trend is developing for Twitter clients that can seamlessly allow you keep track of all the social networks that matter to you. As with many applications, a dedicated Twitter client will usually offer more specialised features, whereas a client that offers integration with multiple social network feeds may have to compromise on some areas of their functionality and usability. Only testing these clients will show you whether a more dedicated application is more useful and efficient when you're travelling.

If you tweet and have a favourite Twitter client, let us know which one you like and why you think it's the best Twitter client in the world.

	The official Twitter application gives all Blackberry owners a fast and effecting way to manage their Twitter account. [COPYRIGHT] Research in Motion
	The iPad is rapidly becoming the companion for many business travellers. If you already use TweetDeck on your desktop and phone, it's also available on the Apple App store as well. [COPYRIGHT] TweetDeck
	As one of the most widely used Twitter applications on the iPhone, iPod Touch and now iPad, the application offers everything the twitterari need to stay in touch. [COPYRIGHT] Iconfactory