The Australian’s iPad app notches up 4,500 downloads
News Corp chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch has revealed The Australian’s iPad app has had 4,500 downloads just one week after its launch.
Murdoch made the announcement, which has been confirmed by a News Limited spokesman in Australia, at The Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital D8 conference held in the US.
The Australian’s app, which is priced at $4.99 a month, launched on May 28, on the same day the iPad was released in the local market.
In results for other News Corp media properties, Murdoch said the Wall Street Journal app now has 10,000 customers. They pay US$17.29 a month or is free to subscribers of its newspaper and website.
there is a large novelty factor involved with the first download…
people have a new toy and are looking for australian content.
a number of reviews seem to be quite critical of the Australian App, so month 3 figures are going to be a lot more telling.
I wonder if they tell us how many of them get deleted after a couple of weeks?
I am betting that the price of an App should be no more than a third of the print version, pricing will be a key to watch. If publishers get too greedy it wont sell. This was evident with the music revolution and iTunes.
Paul
That Sport & Style corporate video really was a piece of work. They took some bright creative people, scripted their words until they sounded like soulless jargon-spouting corporate drones, and then proceeded to bore the viewer to death.
Fantastic job, Fairfax marketing team.
Once the novelty is over, more local apps are out, the price goes up (as the Aus promises it will) and the annoying ads ramp up then it will be another tale entirely.
And since when do we believe circulation figures about anything released by News Corp ? I’d be amazed if there wasn’t a lot of rubber in that 4,500 figure.
@Del I see what you mean about “Sport and Style – it’s painful to watch. What awful cliches they are. But I’m sure they think they come across as slick and savvy rather than as totally obnoxious merchants of BS.
@Out of interest we struggle with reporting unsubscribes for our app too.
Do you know if Apple release this data? I’ve only been able to locate download metrics so far.
Im a fan of the Australian ap on the ipad. Really convenient- it downloads the paper in the morning, then i read it on the way to work offline. No need even for a 3G connection.
However, I am certain im not getting the full paper online, despite paying for it so Ill be watching that if the price goes up.
Just took my new 64G 3g iPad out of the box. I would buy a toilet seat if it was made by Apple i reckon. Woohoo!
@ Paul … you may just have bought one!
Is there an equivalent of Neilsen for iPad? OK, it’s clear Apple collects download stats – but is there any INDEPENDENT way of knowing which apps are being used?
Not at this stage Bill.
It will take some time to develop and roll-out the necessary tracking software so that we can get a handle on ‘usage’ as opposed to ‘acquisition’ of an app. There are both statistical and financial considerations here as well. In essence, we have to find and wait for the “tipping point” at which robust and reliable data can be independently released to a market that is willing to pay for that data. Clearly, a few weeks into it, we’re not at that point. TV will go through the same thing with 3D.
John.
That’s pretty much what I thought.
Until we hit the tipping point, most of what we hear from publishers and others is largely unverifiable and anecdotal.
You’d hope the ipad app owners (such as News) are providing their advertisers with sound data around usage. Downloads in isolation don’t mean much.
Next few months will be interesting as from my experience I’ve downloaded a lot of paid apps (inc. magazines) in the past few weeks, but many of them I won’t be renewing when the month is up. As an advertiser I’d want to know the churn rate on an app before considering an investment on the thing.
Whats does the subscription-based “The Australian” app for iPad provide that the free website doesn’t for Netbook/Laptop users?
Ben, don’t you realise how much cooler the news is on an iPad?