With tablet devices such as the Kindle Fire and the iPad, the magazine and newspaper industry may gain some new legs to stand on.
I recently upgraded my iPad to iOS5, Apple’s newest operating system for their mobile products and watched as my newspapers and magazines neatly fit themselves into Newsstand.
Apple has made it easier to find magazines to buy or subscribe to by creating a Newsstand section within the App Store.
It’s somewhat misleading, however. I saw that I could receive Good Housekeeping for free, so I downloaded the app. What happened when I tried to open it was that it took me to the actual issues I could buy. So I was not getting a free subscription, but just the opportunity to buy other issues. I couldn’t flip through them like I would at an actual newsstand or bookstore to see if it was actually something I was interested in buying.
This app shines with subscriptions you already own. Wired magazine is enhanced on my iPad. In a recent issue, there was a reptile eye on the cover. When I looked at it on my iPad, it was a blinking eye. The articles were interactive with videos and high quality pictures.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CNto9DfUfA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wwqsdpm7iG4
Android devices, however, for the time being are left out in the cold. Alternatives to the Apple-only app don’t quite exist yet, but five major publishers are preparing to launch their own app marketplace for Android phones and tablets in the near future.
It’s very new, so it’s hard to judge Newsstand completely. Give me a couple months and I will revisit this to see where Apple and the publishing industry has taken this app. So far, the masses seem unimpressed.
http://twitter.com/lauraforde/status/126051028364828672
http://twitter.com/jayfanelli/status/124588828236316672
http://twitter.com/_AndrewCampbell/status/126013557107195904
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