New subscribers to The Times and The Sunday Times, together referred to as “The Digital Pack”, will be able to get their mitts on a 32GB Google/ASUS Nexus 7 tablet for just £50, says the publisher. The whole package of an 18 month Times subscription and the Nexus 7 tablet will cost you £299 if you pay upfront for the period. According to The Times this saves you £212 off the usual selling price of these two products.
Microsoft has previously offered reduced priced hardware with a subscription; the Xbox 360 with an Xbox Live subscription for example. Mobile phone contracts are not entirely dissimilar business propositions. So let’s have a good look at what The Times has on offer here...
The Digital Pack subscription
The 18 month subscription will allow you to get digital editions of The Times and The Sunday Times through a web site, through the mobile app or via The Times Tablet Edition app. The 18 month digital subscription is charged at £17.33 per month with a first monthly payment of £67.33 to include the £50 Nexus 7 offer (total over term £361). It’s quite a bit cheaper to pay the whole thing upfront though; at £299 for the 18 month sub and the tablet together. Subscribers also get Times+ membership which offers “a wealth of events, offers and extras”.
The The Times Tablet Edition app help video isn't very useful
The Nexus 7
We’ve covered this popular tablet here on HEXUS quite a bit since its launch, so most of you will know that it is a 7-inch screened Android Jelly Bean powered device, it offers an excellent bright touch screen backed up by a fast Nvidia Tegra 3 processor. The Nexus 7 weighs in at just 340g and the battery will let you remain unplugged for a decent 9 or 10 hours on average. Early niggles we had were mainly over the skimpy 8GB version, as Nexus devices offer no SD card expansion options. However The Times is offering the 32GB version here.
Exisiting subscribers of The Times who signed up within the last 13 weeks can ring up and get the Nexus 7 upgrade for £50 too.
The Daily dies
Overall it seems a good offer especially if you are due to renew your subscription to The Times shortly or have done so in the last 13 weeks. This new offer from News Corp coincides with the announcement that the iPad newspaper The Daily will close from 15th December. The Daily started digitally publishing 21 months ago and was losing $30 million a year despite amassing about 100,000 subscribers. A subscription to The Daily cost $39.99 a year.
