Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, has acquired Poster, the popular iOS WordPress client. Its sole developer, Tom Witkin, will join the WordPress mobile team. Poster, which launched its 2.0 version in January, has already been removed from the App Store, but users who previously bought it will always be able to re-download it. Witkin also promises to continue to support it.
For Automattic, this is a smart move. Poster was always one of the most elegant and smarter mobile WordPress clients, and while the company itself has made great strides with its own mobile apps, they couldn’t quite rival Poster’s design. As Automattic’s founder Matt Mullenweg told me, “we have acquired the Poster app and its technology, and we’re excited to have Tom contributing to the Automattic mobile team. WordPress on mobile is growing rapidly and so is our investment in it.”
Witkin says that this move will enable him to keep doing what he loves — “creating apps and experiences that enable and delight.” Poster included features like Dropbox integration, Markdown support and full WordPress integration, including support for custom posts.
It’s worth noting that WordPress’ own app doesn’t currently have most of these advanced features, but chances are the addition of Witkin and some of the code he developed for Poster will soon find its way into the official client.