In our post earlier this morning we gave full marks to the FT for getting a sponsor for their initial iPad app, and now it’s the turn of the Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph.
The Telegraph for iPad application launched yesterday and is described as free for “a limited period” – they don’t say when the period finishes – and is sponsored by Audi UK. The Telegraph did a similar thing with their iPhone app which was sponsored by Cisco, it’s now free and un-sponsored.
The app includes UK News, World News, Sport, Business, Comment and Features, along with the day’s cartoon by the Telegraph’s cartoonist, Matt, as well as columns and analysis. Readers can get access to the new paper from 5 am daily, and can then be read offline.
There’s no mention of how much the app will cost after the promotional period. In our view it’s unlikely the Telegraph will charge, the website is free so why pay for the iPad app? And the sponsorship from Audi has probably more than covered the costs so why bother to charge?
The Telegraph developed the app with mobile developer TigerSpike, media agency MediaCom, and BBH, and it looks good. Unfortunately while the app looks good there seem to be a few issues, one user reported that the app “Crashed within 10 minutes of uploading the app and now won’t open….” And the customer ratings are either very bad or very good, and nothing between – which is what you would expect from Telegraph readers. There’s no sitting on the fence in middle England.
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