Zite next with iPhone app, says Android tablets too small
updated 12:20 pm EST, Fri December 9, 2011
Zite matches Flipboard with iPhone-sized version
Zite on Friday countered Flipboard's iPhone port with one of its own. Version 1.3 of Zite (App Store) is now universal and uses a top carousel for sections. The features are a parallel to those on the iPad, which also gets the bug fixes attached to the curated news app.
In explaining why the release was coming to a smaller screen instead of an Android tablet, CEO Mark Johnson explained in a podcast with Silicon Alley Insider that it was both a matter of convenience and of platform significance. Demand existed for an iPhone version, he said, and Zite could simply port some of the iPad code. It was the "logical next step," he said.
He dismissed Android tablets, however, saying the share was too small to consider porting. They didn't have enough of a share to be worth the port, he said. Part of the problem stemmed from bad pricing, Johnson suggested: when Android tablet makers were producing hardware "inferior" to the iPad but pricing it at the same level, they weren't going to get adoption.
