"Having a development ecosystem is one of those Holy Grails in tech. Not every company is able to do it, but it's a big plus if you can. It multiplies monetization opportunities for you," Hilwa said.

Ultimately, Twitter's efforts to expand its revenue may be a bigger priority for it at the moment than its relationship with developers, Hilwa and Owyang said.

"But let's be clear, the number of developers to walk away from Twitter will be small," Owyang said. "We're going to hear a lot of moaning on blog posts and in tweets, but they can't completely unhook from Twitter."

The IDG News Service