Apple iPhone 5 to entwine Twitter tweets?

Twitter may be more prominent on the iPhone 5 as there are reports the social network will be built into Apple's next smartphone.

According to Tech Crunch and Daring Fireball, Twitter may be integrated at a system level, which means it will be more than just an application you choose to use.

Tech Crunch claims, 'We’ve heard from multiple sources that Twitter is likely to have a big-time partner for such a service: Apple. Specifically, we’re hearing that Apple’s new iOS 5 will come with an option to share images to Twitter baked into the OS. This would be similar to the way you can currently share videos on YouTube with one click in iOS.

'Obviously, a user would have to enable this feature by logging in with their Twitter credentials in iOS. There would then be a “Send to Twitter” option for pictures stored on your device.'

What could this mean? Quite simply, you would enter your Twitter login details once, and rather than using an app to check out your feed or what's trending, it could appear in a general social feed or, say, within your contacts list.

There are a number of less obvious features Apple could also make use of, including tapping into location side of things - we'll have to see exactly what is in store, if anything.

Assuming this turns out to be true, Apple is on the back foot for a change. Microsoft has already announced Twitter will be a system-level feature within its Windows Phone 7 operating system, nestling up nicely alongside Facebook.

Whilst it makes sense for Microsoft to go walk a different path because it knows it won't win in the app war - at least not yet - Apple has plenty of applications out there to satisfy the keenest tweeters. If you dislike the integrated version, will you just end up using an app, as before?

It's also odd to base part of your experience on a service that is a 3rd party - not something Apple is usually keen on. Something about eggs and a basket...