Within only a few days, Russell Quinn’s new iPhone app developed for the San Franscisco indie publishing house McSweeney’s attracted mass attention via Twitter and managed to beat the iPhone app from bestselling American author Dan Brown on the U.S. iTunes App charts. So what’s so special about this app?
What can I use your iPhone application for?
McSweeney’s is a multi-media subscription app. Actually, it’s pretty much the first multi-media subscription app on the market! The purchase price includes a 6-month subscription and each week you’ll be pushed a new piece of content. This can be a film, a short story, an interview, a song, some artwork, or… well it’s pretty flexible. As well as this, you get daily updates from the McSweeney’s website, which will continue even if your subscription lapses.
How has the application been received following the launch?
We had a pretty wild launch night. There was lots of activity on Twitter and other social networks that propelled us to the number 1 spot in the books category (U.S. iTunes) beating Dan Brown’s new app. Since then sales had been stable and there’s been a lot of media interest in how McSweeney’s is pionerring such a new format. We had coverage on several major websites and I was interviewed by the Journalism Lab at Harvard University.
What will you focus on during next rounds of updating the application?
We have many exciting ideas for future versions. We really want to push the app in lots of new directions. Currently these are all secret, not for any other reason that we want them to be a surprise.
Have you considered making your application available on other platforms?
The McSweeney’s brand fits wonderfully on the iPhone I think and currently we’re too tired from the current launch to think about other platforms. However, we’re not ruling anything out.
What do you think the future of mobile applications holds?
Subscription-based publishing is fascinating, as is the rumoured Apple tablet.
Read more or head directly to McSweeney’s in the App Store.
