Guardian News & Media has today launched a new version of its Guardian.co.uk mobile website and is poised to launch a new version of its paid-for smartphone app with a new pricing structure.
The new mobile site, which is ad-funded and free to access, has introduced new editorial elements, enhanced design and been engineered to provide faster updates, GNM said.
The revamped m.guardian.co.uk site will carry a greater volume of Guardian.co.uk content and include live football scores on the homepage, redesigned pages, a book-marking facility, a searchable archive and several other usability improvements.
The Guardian’s mobile site originally launched in March 2009 and has since become the leading UK national mobile site, increasing page impressions to 507,000 each day in September, up from 217,000 in the same month last year, according to ABCe.
Janine Gibson, editor, guardian.co.uk, said: “Mobile is a crucial part Guardian News & Media’s digital strategy, and the statistics speak for themselves in terms of how important being able to access our content on the move is to our readers.
“The new mobile site – along with a number of other mobile products in the pipeline – demonstrates our commitment to this growing medium.”
In addtion, GNM plans to launch a new iPhone app in the coming weeks – possibly next month. The new app will cost £2.99 for a six-month subscription or £3.99 for a year in the UK and several other countries. The app will be free to US users.
The new version is set to replace the current app, which costs a one-off payment £2.39 and is understood to have been downloaded in excess of 200,000 times.
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