It’s certainly a lot more elegant, but will Fairfax Media’s Mark II metro iPad app succeed where its predecessor failed (writes Peter Coleman). 

The new app for ‘The Age’ and the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ launches tomorrow, and is free for six months, thanks to a Telstra sponsorship. After that it will cost $8.99 a month.

Opinion seems divided on whether users will pay to get something which – at least in part – they can get free on the newspapers’ websites. The outcome will depend almost entirely on the viewing experience, expected to be a huge improvement on the PDF-like first version.

Jack Mathews, recently moved from a digital-only role to head of Fairfax's metropolian media division, says the company expects to learn more from feedback as a result of the free trial: “With this being free for an extended period of time we are going to get huge downloads,” he says. “I don't think there is any question of that.”

The two versions have been developed inhouse, and the capability is being used to extend reach to android (and perhaps other tablet) devices.

Matthews has already made the point that Fairfax expects to make money from the android version that the iPad, which suffers from Apple’s 30 per cent distribution fee.

He says the company is “coming out net ahead” on the sponsorship against the cost of the product. Telstra has 100,000 customers with iPads, and “wanted to encourage tablet-based media content,” a spokesperson said.

See the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ video