The Instant iPad App

For publishers, iPad apps are all the rage these days. Everybody's developing whizbang apps to take advantage of Apple's popular tablet—even though, when you get right down to it, most of the apps aren't huge improvements over the publications' existing Web sites, which are just a touch away on an iPad screen. Still every newspaper and magazine wants to have its own iPad app, so they're spending zillions to develop them, business models be damned.

But do you really need to build your own app? It turns out there are other tools out there that can create good-looking apps, from publisher's feeds, at minimal cost. Three of the best-known ones are Flipboard, Pulse and Zite, which create slick, high-quality iPad publications from various combinations of users' Twitter and RSS feeds. Good stuff, and I'm surprised we haven't seen publishers license private-label versions of these platforms to create cheap, easy iPad apps for themselves.

And now WordPress has made creating a news app—or at least an iPad-compatible blog—even easier. Got an iPad? Got a WordPress blog? Check out your blog in Safari on the iPad, and prepare to be amazed. (If you don't have a WordPress blog handy, here's a good hyperlocal one, by my friend Dan Woog, from whom I first heard about this trick. Sorry, I can't help you if you don't have an iPad!)

Very quietly, WordPress has rolled out a nice iPad "Onswipe" theme for all 18 million of its blogs, automatically making them iPad-friendly. You get a nice title page, an iPad-like layout of posts, and the ability to swipe across the screen to change pages—all requisite features of any good iPad app, all automatic for any WordPress blog. The popular blogging platform has had a similarly good-looking, simplified mobile version for smartphones for a while now. No muss, no fuss—instant compatibility with the latest in mobile computing.

The point is, you don't need a team of developers to create a good-looking iPad app or iPad-friendly site for your publication. Why waste the money building a custom app? WordPress, like Flipboard, Pulse and Zite, is proving that a simple, universal iPad-in-a-box solution may be a much better way to bring publications quickly and easily into the tablet age. 

 

Comments

[jackd]

Mark: Do you see "apps" as a fad for news consumption? Seems like browser based version optimized for the platform could be as good in most cases if people can get over "there's an app for that."

-- jack lail

[Mark Potts]

Good question, Jack. As I said in the post, my trouble with most apps is that there's a great web site by the same publisher a touch away--and usually it's better. There are very, very few media apps that I use as replacements for their Web equivalents on the iPad (the superb MLB app is about the only one I can think of, if that even counts as a media app). In most cases, I use the app a couple of times, out of novelty, then go back to the superior Web version.

So I agree: An optimized browser-based version seems like a perfectly fine solution for most publishers. If you really feel like you have to have an app, then private-label a Zite or Flipboard--or design an app that truly brings real value to the iPad experience (a la MLB). Otherwise, optimize your Web site for iOS (iPhone, too) and spend the money you save on better content for all readers.

[Julie Kinzer]

Mr. Potts,
My name is Julie Kinzer, I'm a Journalism Grad student at American University. I'm taking a class on business journalism and I really do enjoy reading your blog. I've learned a lot about the digital media world from reading some of your posts. Like many broke students like myself I do not have the advantage of an Ipad, Iphone and may not purchase one in the future do to the costs and the added expense of online and phone services. Do you believe that not having any Apps or not owning an Ipad, Iphone is a disadvantage for most journalists and do you think that it will eventually become a requirement in the future? Thanks.
Julie Kinzer

[Mark Potts]

Julie:
The same questions were raised about computers and cell phones about 15 years ago, and look where we are now. I think we're still very much in the early innings of iPads/tablets (and iPhones/smartphones).

The iPad is just a year old and still making its way into the mainstream; iPhones are a bit more ubiquitous, but still hardly commonplace. I think that will change over time—Apple sold 15 million iPads last year and is predicted to sell 50-60 million this year, so you can see them growing in the marketplace. For many of us, the iPad is already a laptop replacement—cheaper and lighter. I think in 3-5 years tablets and smartphones will be very much the norm. They certainly aren't going away.