“For over a year now, every last Friday of the month, we’ve published a fresh issue of TNW Magazine, our tablet-only digital magazine,” Boris explains for The Next Web (TNW). “Our first issues were all iPad only. Then the Retina iPad was introduced so we optimized for that. It was a bit more work to optimize for two iPads, but not so much that we minded. And the magazine looked spectacular on the retina screen so it was worth the extra effort.”
“With every issue we published we also received a lot of requests for an Android version of the magazine,” Boris writes. “To be honest; it wasn’t easy. In theory you simply adjust for a different format and platform and do a new export. But then trouble starts. As one developer put it to us: ‘You make a beautiful magazine for the iPad, and then you dumb it down for Android.'”
“All of that wouldn’t have been a problem if we had seen a market for our magazine on Android. And we did believe there would be one. We had gotten enough requests for it and had gotten the impression there were thousands of anxious Android tablets owners holding their breath for an Android version of our magazine. Unfortunately we’ve found out that although Android users are very vocal they aren’t very active when it comes to downloading and reading magazines,” Boris writes. “To give you some insight in how little uptake we saw on Android here are some statistics: for every Android user that downloads an Android magazine we have 80 iOS downloads… This month’s magazine will be the last Android optimized issue. Starting 2013 we will only publish for iOS.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The highly-confused land of Fragmandroid is populated by primarily by cheapskateoids.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “TJK” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Note: iOS device users, download TNW Magazine – for free, as always –here
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The Android engagement paradox – November 26, 2012
People buy more Android phone units and do less with them vs. Apple’s revolutionary iPhone – November 14, 2012
Study: iPhone users vastly outspent Android users on apps, respond much better to ads – August 20, 2012
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Game over, Android: Apple owns 84% of mobile gaming revenue – May 7, 2012
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“The highly-confused land of Fragmandroid is populated by primarily by cheapskateoids.”
And that will be the downfall of Android. There’s no fixing it either. It’s in the DNA.
The droids will go the same way as the ‘Square Wheel’. Nowhere!
“You make a beautiful magazine for the iPad, and then you dumb it down for Android.’”
LOL I love that, he couldn’t describe better the Android nightmare.
THe problem is they had a lot of anxious Android folks. What they needed was a lot of eager Android folks. Havin Android does add anxiety to ones life.
Get a grip MDN, this is last years news.
Because *this* year, Android will stop being fragmented, and its users will start paying for apps and content.
“for every Android user that downloads an Android magazine we have 80 iOS downloads”
Check…..Mate!
Haha +1
Android isn’t profitable.
“…thousands of anxious Android tablets owners…”. Hum, what were they afraid of? The proper statement would be “…thousands of eager Android tablets owners…”.
Folks, the definition of anxious and eager are not at all close.
Bubba J, many words have multiple meanings. You might want to drop by Dictionary.com before your post. Check out listing #2 for ‘anxious.’ It even has ‘eager’ embedded in the definition.
Anxious (adjective)
1.full of mental distress or uneasiness because of fear of danger or misfortune; greatly worried; solicitous: Her parents were anxious about her poor health.
2.earnestly desirous; eager (usually followed by an infinitive or for ): anxious to please; anxious for our happiness.
3.attended with or showing solicitude or uneasiness: anxious forebodings.
Kinda reminds me of the old Mac days.
‘You make a beautiful magazine for the iPad, and then you dumb it down for Android.’ – This is so true, and I know it form my daily business. I once tried to make something for Android for exact the same reason, people were asking. Then I had to face all those issues and so I turned back to iOS only. There is only one platform worth the effort of digital publishing, all the iPads. Even the very first iPad has a better reading experience than a brand new Android tablet.
“Even the very first iPad has a better reading experience than a brand new Android tablet.”
Elaborate on that point?
Apple haters will try anything.
In this case, it seems the Fandroids WEREN’T TRYING the TNW magazine.
I had to read the comments to see if there would be whiny Fandroids claiming their clearly superior system was wronged. I was not disappointed.
——RM