iPhone News Updated

The Guardian launches paid-for iPhone app

The Guardian has launched a paid-for news app for the iPhone, which allows readers to easily access content on the newspaper’s website.

The app, which the Guardian charges users a one-off fee of £2.39 for, has come at a time when newspapers across the world are struggling to monetise their content online. Interestingly, the website and mobile versions will continue to remain free though - something that other publishers are thinking to change.

Initially, the Guardian’s decision to not charge users to read its website sounded a little strange, but the application is designed to make using the Guardian’s website much easier on a mobile device. The app allows you to customise what content you want to view, effectively making your own homepage.

This, the Guardian believes, is something that users would be willing to pay for and we’re sure other publishers will be paying close attention to how well the app goes down with users.

Inside the app, there’s news, commentary, features, audio and photos; video has been omitted in the first version, but may be added into later versions. The application also supports offline browsing too.

“At an early stage we decided to set the bar high, which hopefully means the app has been planned, designed, tested and developed to offer a truly amazing experience,” said Jonathon Moore, the paper’s mobile product manager. “The investment involved in this requires us to ask a small fee in return.”

One could say that this is an experiment and if it’s successful, we’ll see the same from other newspapers in the future.

You can read more about the application, and watch a promotional video of it in action, on the Guardian’s website.

[Thanks: http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/]

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