PASADENA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PostUp, Inc., today announced its acquisition of Echofon, the suite of Twitter applications developed by naanstudio, and previously known as “TwitterFon” and “TwitterFox.” Widely regarded for its ease of use and simple, elegant design, Echofon is currently used by more than 3 million people internationally, across multiple platforms. Additionally, Echofon was one of the first Twitter applications to introduce User Streams, a new Streaming API that gives Twitter desktop applications real-time capabilities and streams. GigaOm included Echofon in its top five Twitter applications for iPad, citing its Echofon Pro synchronization capabilities for the iPad, iPhone and desktop. It also has an Echofon for Facebook app available for the iPhone.

Echofon founder Kazuho Okui, his partner Naoki Hiroshima and Biz Dev Chika Watanabe are all my friends at JTPA (Japanese Technology Professional Organization). Kazuho started it as his hobby 3 years ago.

They didn't start it as a "start-up", but was rather as their "favorite passtime", and was caught by surprise when people started using their app with no marketing effort.

But I think the secret of their success is that they started early, both in Twitter and iPhone, before anyone else. They surely have good grasp of what's going on in Web world, and they share the LOVE to the mobile gear with many Japanese people.

Congrats to Echofon folks!!

Michi