Herald launching Android app

Expect an nzherald.co.nz Android app shortly.

Someone from a large company told me the paper was showing a beta version around town.

"Yes, we are launching Android app in June," APN Online editor-in-chief Jeremy Rees confirmed last night. (Stuff already has an Android app.)

Mr Rees has promised more mobile stats (chop, chop), but for some unexplained reason seems to be prioritising his Herald duties.

During his last Keallhauled audit - on February 6 - I asked Mr Rees many people accessed nzherald.co.nz through a mobile. He said the site's mobile audience was 80,000+ a week, not including 10,000+ iPad users. The Herald's iPad app had been downloaded "more than 32,000 times" - though I'm guessing quite few, like me, had to download it twice after an early glitch.

On Media 7, as the iPad app originally launched, Mr Rees said paid access was a possibility once a Mercedes campaign (a video that played as the app loaded; early adopters still see it in their sleep) expired.

February 6, he said, "At this stage we are not intending to move the iPad app to a paid model but we are not ruling out a paid option in the future for any of our apps.".

(Incidentally, I read both the Herald and Stuff on my i{Pad, but use neither site's app anymore, preferring their website versions.)

Floodgates open
Anyhow, nice one Herald.

I like Apple, but it needs competition to keep it on its toes, 

Google's Android software - now used on phones and tablets made by HTC, Huawei, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson - is doing well in handset market share (in the US, it's ahead of Apple). But to really fly it needs more apps; a lot more apps (problems with the weird and wonderful mix of Android hardware, and software versions, notwithstanding). Some early iPhone app champions are still mushy in their Android plans (stand up, TradeMe), but I'm sensing a groundswell here. Localist and Yellow offshoot Yellow Local have both pledged to support Android as well as iPhone.

Others, like Radio New Zealand (whose iPhone app is superb), are not developing specifically for Android, but rather turning their development focus to mobile app standards that will give them multiplatform support.

David, buy a freakin' phone already
This morning, I've been trying to get hold of TeamTalk managing director David Ware. (TeamTalk's CityLink is building the Wellington free wi-fi network. Among other things, I want to know what sort of wireless bandwidth Wellywoodians will see).

Unfortunately, David was not in the office, and his receptionist told me that he STILL DOES NOT OWN A MOBILE PHONE.

When I last asked Mr Ware about this state of affairs, he claimed he used to own a cellphone, but found he was more productive without it: "I organise meetings and people just turn up. It forces a little bit of discipline.”

What about emergencies?

“There have been occasions when my PA has had to run down Courtney Place looking in every bar for me,” conceded Mr Ware.

“But it hasn’t happened often.”