I've written many times about how stupid it was for twitter to cut the sms service in Europe. It discouraged me from using the service. I also commented on how they should have made a better mobile version of their website for non iphone users.

I also wrote and commented about Jaiku and what it promised but that failed to get enough users to be a serious contender.

I see quite a few Europeans playing with plurk at the moment. Europe is a fragmented market with many languages and many interesting services as you point out in your post.

If Facebook is anything to go by then we may have to wait at least another year or two before twitter becomes anything more than a play toy for people like you and those those that we converse with on a regular basis.