That subscription feature that Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) introduced to iPhone OS 3.0 could start paying off. No sooner has The Spectator magazine announced a £0.59 iPhone app that also costs a further £0.59 a week to refresh, now astrologer Russell Grant is doing similar…
The Russell Grant Horoscope App, going live in the next couple of weeks, will be a free download packing daily horoscopes, a supposed “palm reader” and an “astro dice reading” – all for free. But the app will also ask users to pay another £0.59 each month via the system’s new subscription payment method for more content.
Publishers keep saying they want a paid content method that’s as frictionless as iTunes Store. With iPhone subscriptions, they may have exactly that – but usable, of course, only by Apple handset owners.
The app is made by Yuza Mobile, which has a range of other free and pay-for apps. It’s not the first time Grant has taken his horoscopes in to pay-for territory beyond the pages of his syndicated predictions – after operating premium-rate phone lines for several years, he also offers SMS forecasts.
Curiously, Grant is targeting it specifically at women (what; men don’t read their stars, too?). The release reckons “the female market is under developed and desperately needs an input of quality apps”.