UK newspaper The Guardian has this week launched its first ever full iPad app. The app, which can be downloaded once a day, will be free to download for an initial three-month trial (thanks to sponsorship from Channel 4), and then after that will cost ?9.99 per month. Alan Rusbridger, the Guardian?s editor-in-chief, said that the app would not differ too much in terms of its presentation from the printed version of the newspaper.

?We wanted it to be like a newspaper, in that it is very respectful of text. It has a hierarchy, like a newspaper front page, and you don?t get lost in it unlike some other iPad apps,? said Rusbridger. When asked why the Guardian?s iPad app had taken so long to come out, in contrast to the Times and Telegraph apps, for example, Rusbridger said that the delay was mainly due to a shortage of developers, and because of the sophisticated nature of the app?s design.