The Bloomberg Businessweek+ app, which just passed the 100,000 subscriber mark among iPad users, officially launches for the iPhone and iPod touch tomorrow (April 11, 2012).
The app breaks the magazine replica format used by most e-magazines by providing a web-like navigation experience on the iPhone. The tabbed categories seen in the iPad version of the app is not available on the smaller iPhone display. However, the navigation system brought over from the iPad makes it fast and easy to select an article within a topic category. The content of a single article is viewed vertically. Moving to another article within a topic category is down by swiping left or right. This eliminates the need to go back up a hierarchical tree to find another article in the same category. I prefer this break away from the paper magazine replica approach. It provides faster navigation and a better reading experience.
The developers managed to keep the content download time way under typical magazine downloads I’ve experienced. They claim that an issue can be downloaded in about three minutes over a typical 3G connection. I downloaded an issue over WiFi and found it ready to read in about a minute.
The lets you see images in full screen by tapping the image. And, tapping a stock symbol brings up a summary of the company’s current status.
Audio content is available too. The Bloomberg Businessweek+ app’s audio is separate content provided by Bloomberg TV and Radio.
Individual current issues cost $2.99. Older issues cost $3.99. A one-year subscription costs $29.99. New issues are available weekly each Thursday at 10pm Eastern Time.
For comparison, you can see what the app looks like on an iPad in the three screenshots below.
Disclosure: Bloomberg Businessweek provide a complimentary 3-month subscription to let me evaluate the app and its contents for this review.