Appealing
In a move ostensibly aimed at delivering an improved experience for customers, but surely at least partly driven by the desire not to pay Apple's 30 per cent subscription fee cut, the Financial Times has launched a web app for the iPhone and iPod touch, replacing the native application which will no longer receive updates.
Aside from the financial benefit to the FT, which won't have to shell out a percentage of its subscription fees to Apple as its web app is independent of the App Store there are a number of other bonuses to this web-based, rather than native app-based delivery platform. Foremost, because the web app is simply a website, updates can be pushed out at any time, and don't require downloads on the user's end.
Because of the use of a number of HTML5 technologies, the FT web app still packs a number of useful features. If added to the home screen, the FT web app provides offline storage, letting subscribers read articles without an Internet connection - although videos are not stored for offline viewing. The Financial Times also claims that its web app is faster than a native application.
There are benefits on the development side, too. First, the use of standard web technologies as opposed to OS-specific frameworks means that multiple platforms can be targeted at once; so although the initial release is specifically made for the iPhone and iPad, Android, Windows Phone 7, and BlackBerry handsets will be much easier to add support for than if this were a native application.
The app is available right now, and as access is free for the first week to give users a chance to try it out there's no harm in taking a look.
