Australian’s iPad app races onto iTunes chart but the high frequency ads annoy users
E
arly user reviews of The Australian’s highly anticipated iPad app have been lukewarm, with iTunes users so far rating the $4.99 per month application an average of three stars out of five.
The most common criticism from those who have invested in the app so far is that the full page ads – served between every article – are too intrusive. Others have complained that the application does not contain the same range of content that the newspaper does.
However, despite the negative comments, at the time of writing The Australian’s iPad app, which launched on Friday, is number one in the news section of iTunes Australia’s paid iPad apps chart.
Comments ranged from “I feel ripped off and want to know where I can get a refund” to “a good range of material, intuitively presented, at a reasonable price”.
Like everything else to do with Apple, I’d wait for the second version…
Have you guys even seen the app? There is no way it has ads served between every article! Otherwise good points on both sides of the aisle…
I downloaded the app Friday and have had 48 hrs with it
– ad model is clunky. there’s not ads between every article but the format appears to be over the page which can get annoying.
– interface feels unnatural to me … content is ok, presentation a pass mark, but navigation doesn’t feel right
– does it add anything to the paper? well, not yet but it’s day 3 … it feels like a compromised version of the newspaper.
It will improve over time but I think the Australian’s bluster around the ipad and its approach is premature. Have to give them points for trying but it’s just not that good yet. I get the feeling the primary motivation driving their embrace of the ipad is purely financial – it’s not about improving the product or making it better for users.
Kudos to Newsnet for selling $1m of ads around it – great biz dev – but you have to wonder whether the advertisers are going to feel the value was there when the launch buzz finishes.
The current iTunes review process doesn’t offer any credibility so publishers are forced to find as many positive reviewers as possible where the competition has to find as many naysayers.
At the end of the day why review an iPad App ??
Anyone with an iPhone/iPad will know how passionate you have to be about the application to review it. Once you’ve downloaded it you then have to revisit the App store via iTunes to review it… i.e. regardless if your positive or negative you have to have an agenda.
Could this explain why ‘The Australian US iTunes AppStore reviews are much more positive than the Australian AppStore ?
For “NorMobs” – an industry term for Normal people with a Mobile handset – the only chance you get to review an App is when you uninstall it – which leads to a heavily influenced 1* rating – as opposed to a useful metric i.e. the average life of this application is 2 months, and most users use it 3 times per week or consume it for an average X minutes per day.
So all these reviews should be taken with a pinch of salt, if you actually click on the reviewers – you can see their other reviews – however the majority it seems have only reviewed “one application” which is pretty questionable.
The surface has just been scratched…
Congratulations to The Australian and The Age for getting behind this new technology and seeing how they can leverage from it.
I wouldn’t give too much credence to the negative reviews – this is a first attempt, and as with anything new, it will take time to perfect.
They get my respect for grasping this opportunity with both hands.
Wow, did News Net really sell 1 million dollars worth of ads around this? I’d hate to be the person who signed of on that one. Looks like it’ll be makegoods for the next couple of years at least.
Why would you spend money on a app that serves you ads – when you can look at the website for free?
If I am spending money for Internet News it had better be ad free and full content.