For such a refreshing new newspaper, The Independent’s “i” off-shoot sure has released an uninspiring iPad edition.
The £0.20-a-day smart mini-newspaper is now in iTunes Store as a free download, packing five edition downloads for free, 10 for £1.79 or 20 for £2.99 – those are 10 percent and 20 percent discounts on the cover price.
But, whilst some papers like The Times are publishing iPad editions that are custom-designed for the tablet screen, “i”‘s app (called “The i” in iTunes Store, and built by Triactive Media, whose main product is called “Magazine Cloner“) is just a shoveled replica of the print edition.
The text is almost unreadable without zooming; the experience is better in print.
In other words, as with the paper, “i” is going for a low-cost, rather than a long-term, debut to the world of tablets.