The Daily: Free Subscriptions, For A Few More Weeks
by Joe White
February 26, 2011
News Corp.'s The Daily has had its trial period extended once again. Fans of the publication can now enjoy the digital newspaper at no cost, for several more weeks.
Interestingly, the end of The Daily's trial period tells us a lot about the release of iOS 4.3. The latest version of Apple's mobile operating system is expected to bring support for "app subscriptions," a feature The Daily will be the first to support.
However, in order for News Corp. to start billing readers via this method, Apple must first release iOS 4.3. After storming through a series of beta versions, iOS 4.3 has not yet been released, though a Gold Master version is expected to be available next week.
Recently, News Corp. greatly expanded The Daily's trial period, which now ends in a couple of weeks. Obviously, Apple will very likely release iOS 4.3 to the general public during this period. If not, News Corp. will be forced to make the publication free for a longer amount of time.
Personally, I think News Corp. needs to keep The Daily free for the meantime, regardless of the status of iOS 4.3. Since launching, the app has failed to impress a great many iOS users, myself included. Essentially, the application is slow to load, a pain to interact with, and often crashes. News Corp. cannot expect readers to pay for the app when it runs badly for so many users.
A series of updates to the application have promised to improve the app's performance. However, as of this moment, The Daily is far from perfect. Let's hope News Corp. can make the app better before its trial expires. Because if it doesn't, I sure won't be subscribing - even if the publication does cost a mere $0.99 per week.
If you have an opinion on The Daily, or the release of iOS 4.3, let us know in the comments.