The Great Potential of Topsy, Apple's Newest Purchase

This week, Apple acquired Topsy, a social media analytics company that focuses on tracking Twitter data. The acquisition is interesting, not only because of its purported price (a hefty $200 million), but also for what role it might might play in the Cupertino giant's future plans.
Immediately after the acquisition was confirmed, analysts and pundits started to speculate as to why Apple would acquire Topsy. If this were any other company, the promise of "leveraging big data" and "mining social conversations" for real-time data and "sentiment impact" and other buzzword-laden drivel might be enough. But this is Apple.