Phuket Media: Gazette iPad App goes ‘top of chart’ for Phuket

PHUKET: With close to 4,000 downloads since it’s launch, the Phuket Gazette‘s latest iPad App has soared to the top of the App store’s search results for “Phuket”.

The new version (1.1), launched just ten days ago, on November 28, is rated 4.5 and boasts greatly expanded content over its predecessor (1.0) launched in March of this year.

Among the new version’s primary drivers are a striking (some say ‘supercool’) new design; a whole new section dedicated exclusively to Sports; and the ability to watch Phuket television streaming from the Gazette’s PGTV channel, which is focused on News and Events.

Also in the new package are easier navigation, expanded social networking functions, and an extremely friendly user ability to adjust font sizes.

There is additionally, according to Gazette marketing manager Kristi Matzenberger, a “very cool and completely silent [non-flashing, non streaming] information box at the top of every page in the App.

“It doesn’t roll, tick, stream, flash or otherwise distract readers. Its messages simply whisper in and whisper away, fading in and fading out, like mist,” she says.

App users are invited to use the comments section below this story (in the iPad or on the Web) to suggest a suitable name for this ethereal box and its important messages. Hint: It’s not a ticker, not a streamer, not a flasher….

The messages in the box include events (happy hours, brunches, wine dinners, regattas, triathlons, music festivals, trade shows); public holidays; selected classified ads; and the odd and completely irrelevant factoid.

Users of the Gazette‘s new App will continue to enjoy all of the popular features available in the old one, including Daily News, Queer News and Lifestyle features, as well as the ability to comment in our Forums; to place Classifieds; to promote Events in our Calendar; and to address our editors with regard to issues that affect the daily life in Phuket.

As for the future of Apps and iPads generally, John Magee, publisher of the Phuket Gazette, is optimistic.

“I don’t know whether the recent acceleration in downloads of our App is attributable to the huge expansion in content – now roughly 80,000 pages – or whether it’s just the growing realization that tablets are a very important medium for accessing news – and just about every other type of information,” he says.

“There are now roughly 32 million iPads out there and Apple’s sales of them are currently running at about 2.6 million a month. We were lucky to have entered that market when we did,” he notes.

All content in the iPad App, including the television, originates from the Gazette Online, which continues to enjoy Google’s top ranking for any website in or about Phuket.

Readers are invited to download the new App here. It’s free of charge.