WSJ: The Daily Coming To Android Tablets This Spring

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AllThingsD is owned by News Corp, and now, Peter Kafka writes on that website that he’s hearing from sources that News Corp’s tablet only “virtual newspaper”, The Daily is coming to Android tablets this spring, Q2 2011. The Daily was announced in a joint press event held by both News Corp and Apple – and comments from News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch seemed to indicate that it would be an iPad exclusive for awhile – but I guess not.

News Corp’s team did get technical support from Apple in developing the application, and they were the first app to use the App Store subscription service – but, at the end of the day, The Daily is still a News Corp property and it doesn’t look like Apple can stop it from going elsewhere. It helps that Google just announced in-app subscriptions for the Android Market, with publishers and content creators getting 90% of the revenues, when compared to the 70% they get on Apple’s service.

Although most folks seem happy with The Daily’s writing quality, there are a few complaints out there related to the virtual paper. First, it doesn’t dynamically update throughout the day – so some are wondering if the news is fast enough. Secondly, the app itself is said to be very buggy with random crashing and whatnot. Kafka writes on AllThingsD that News Corp’s The Daily team was sent to Cupertino to work with Apple on solving the technical issues that are plaguing The Daily’s app.

I’ve heard complaints from developers that “nobody spends money in the Android Market,” and there have been some studies out there that say that the average iPhone customer spends more on apps than the average Android customer. That makes you wonder why News Corp would launch their premium virtual newspaper on such a platform. I guess to News Corp, any extra development costs are worth it, because they want to get the paper out to as many users as possible.

Any Android users that would purchase The Daily on their Android phone or tablet?