I have given up using the Herald Sun iPad app. It is too slow. I want immediate access. Waiting more than a minute to download is too long, especially when I can get the New Zealand Herald, the benchmark newspaper iPad app in my view, in a fraction of the time it takes do download the Herald Sun. The New Zealand Herald has more content yet access is much faster.
On the Herald Sun iPad app itself, it is no groundbreaker. The experience is out of touch with modern apps. They say they wanted to keep it simple. If I want a simple access to news I would buy a newspaper. I have an iPad. Give me an iPad experience. That’s one reason I have this device, the experience.
Given what I can access on the website for the Herald Sun, the iPad app, in my view, does not deliver value.
The app for The Australian was better than that for the Herald Sun when I last subscribed. But it too needed work. News Limited needs to truly innovate if they want to capture the hearts, minds and wallets of iPad and other tablet users.
I don’t plan to renew my Herald Sun iPad subscription.
What I would really like to see is APN release a new iPad only newspaper app in Australia based on their New Zealand Herald app platform. That would be a game changer for newspaper apps in Australia.
As with the Herald Sun app most newspaper apps, that come from a traditional print based newspaper, are too similar to their print counterparts. Newspaper apps should provide a completely different consumer experience.
My preference, and one of the more popular styles if application rankings are to go be, is the horizontal banding seen in apps like Pulse and ABC.
Its also worth noting that the ABC has recently expanded their iView service to an iPad app. It expands the availability of professional multimedia news content available though the tablet platform.