The Financial Times Proves App Store Not Only Game In Town
June 24, 2011
Proving that native apps aren’t the only came in town, The Financial Times is doing just fine two weeks after it left the App Store to journey out on its own. During that time, the publication saw 200,000 downloads of its web-based app, according to MediaWeek.
The Financial Times was one of the first newspapers to publish an iPad edition when the new tablet arrived in 2010. However, on June 7 it decided it would not abide by Apple’s impending subscription rules and thereafter pulled its native app from the App Store.
In its place, The Financial Times web app was born and so far it is doing quite well.
According to John Ridding, FT chief Executive, the app was downloaded 100,000 times during its first week and is nearing the 200,000 mark as of today, June 24.
A spokesman states:
"We've seen strong demand for the FT web app since its launch. We have an ongoing marketing campaign encouraging users to migrate to the new platform and we’re confident we can maintain the momentum."These numbers will certainly make other publishers rethink their iPad strategies. After all, since moving to a web app format, The Times is no longer giving Apple a 30 percent cut of its app revenues. The Financial Times web app is located at http://app.ft.com with standard subscriptions costing $4.99 per week. It is available on both the iPhone/iPod touch and iPad.