Our sister blog Gadgetell has a brief piece on the new version of the Nook for Android app, which notably adds the Nook Newsstand and personalized recommendations to the app for any Android device running version 2.1 or later—including smartphones.
And speaking of Newsstand apps, ReadWriteWeb looks at the Kindle Fire Newsstand’s app as one of Amazon’s secret weapons in the war against the iPad. Offering over 400 full-color publications, and including a free three-month trial of various Condé Nast magazines for those who subscribe before March 1, 2012, the app will compete with Apple’s own Newsstand. The Apple app reportedly accounted for a 268% jump in iPad sales for Condé Nast magazines after its launch.
Stand-alone magazine apps have had a notably spotty track record on the iPad, though judging from the Condé Nast sales jump it would seem Newspad may have fixed the worst issues. Those problems aside, it seems fairly obvious that color tablets will provide a better reading experience for glossy, full-color magazine pages than a black-and-white e-ink reader would. And people who already buy a lot of magazine subscriptions would likely have the sort of disposable income someone considering spending $200 on a tablet would need. (Barnes & Noble seems to be banking on this, too, as with the addition of Nook Newsstand to smartphone apps.)
Of course, it remains to be seen just how effective this secret weapon will be.
Is it really a secret weapon if everyone is doing it? What is really going to matter is execution.
I use only one magazine app on my iPad, and that’s because I already had a subscription to the magazine in question, so it didn’t cost me anything I wasn’t already paying, but I can’t say I’m hugely impressed with the format and often don’t bother downloading the newest edition since I still get the paper copy.
I’ve been using Zinio to read magazines on my iPad since I bought it. Recently, I started reading magazines in B&N’s Newsstand with the Nook app. The nice thing is that B&N is carrying magazines I can’t get through Zinio. I now have all my magazines coming digitally. I still have a print version of The Week (US) for the rest of the family, but now that B&N has it in Newsstand, I read it on my iPad…and actually find I’m reading it it more thoroughly.