Rupert Murdoch’s ambitious tablet newspaper The Daily may not be an iPad-only affair for too long. The paper is apparently prepping for a jump to Android tablets in the second quarter of this year, sources tell All Things Digital.
During The Daily’s launch event earlier this month, Murdoch said that the paper would look at expanding to other tablet platforms as they get developed. But he also said that “we think last year, this year, and next year will belong to the iPad.”
That led some to believe that The Daily would focus on the iPad for this year and possibly delay a jump to Android until next year. Now it seems the paper is planning to take advantage of the new wave of tablets that will run the tablet-friendly Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” release, which are expected to arrive in the second and third quarters of this year.
It makes sense that The Daily would want to leap platforms as soon as possible. While the iPad is the most popular tablet platform at the moment, this year will likely see Android tablets making significant gains. The sooner The Daily can establish itself as the go-to news source on that platform, the better.
While the paper is strictly News Corp.’s baby, it has received lots of technical assistance and publicity support from Apple. Steve Jobs himself was expected to appear at The Daily’s launch event, but, possibly due to his health issues, he instead sent Apple’s vice president of Internet services Eddy Cue.
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