The Financial Times has introduced an app that updates via a web browser, according to media reports. The publishing company explains the app lets readers access content fast, through various tablets and smartphones. The FT Web App will give users access to online content for free during the launch week.
“This is our best app yet, and it is an important step in our strategy of providing multi-channel access to our global journalism quickly and simply,” John Ridding, CEO of the Financial Times, said in a company statement. “The FT Web App offers our customers flexibility and freedom of choice with access to our global journalism anytime, anywhere, with a single login or subscription. In a world of increasingly digital complexity we want to keep our service simple, easy to use and efficient to offer our customers the best possible experience of FT journalism.”
The FT Web App lets users read offline, it is available through web browser access, just one registration or subscription is needed to access to the site, it is very fast and it has automatic updates. Also, the FT Web App uses HTML5 technology.
Some of the upcoming additions include: more content such as columns, blogs, reports and graphics and a service to let users read articles at a later time.
The app was already optimized for the iPad and iPhone.
The Inquirer explains the web app is being offered so the FT site can “free itself from Apple's cutthroat pricing demands.”
In addition, FT Online Managing Director Rob Grimshaw said the site “refused to bow to Apple's demand to take a massive 30 percent cut from its Apps Store service,” according to The Inquirer. The Inquirer adds the 30 percent cut “could fall afoul of US anti-trust laws” and Apple is being investigated.
"Their terms don't work for us. They won't move, we hope they will. It is a bit of a Mexican standoff," Grimshaw added in a statement appearing in The Guardian.
The FT app first comes on Ithings, and then on Samsung Galaxy kit, Motorola hardware and RIM's Playbook.
In a story appearing on TechZone360, Tammy Wolf says, “Perhaps more major companies and organizations will hop on the HTML5 bandwagon once they attend the DevCon5 Conference, scheduled for July 27 and 28, in New York City. Hosted by TMC and Crossfire Media, the conference will educate Web developers, designers and architects on how to best use HTML5 to develop a dynamic user experience.”
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Ed Silverstein is a TechZone360 contributor. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.Edited by
Jamie Epstein
