Instapaper is an enormously popular read-it-later service that saves articles for later across a variety of platforms.
The Instapaper iOS app has become synonymous with brilliant design and ease of use for apps in general, and has elevated its creator, Marco Arment, to something of a celebrity of sorts in the tech world.
Arment had so far insisted on not bringing his app to the Android ecosystem so far.
Instapaper costs $4.99 in the iTunes App Store, and he was convinced that Google Play (or the erstwhile Android Market) was geared towards freemium apps, rather than fully paid services like Instapaper.
The disappointing failure of an Instapaper-esque app, Papermill, was a fiasco in itself, and seemed to prove Arment’s damning assessment about the Play store right.
As it turns out though, Instapaper has been launched for Android almost out of the blue. Developed by Mobelux (who have the acclaimed Tumblr Android app in their repertoire), it is available in the Google Play store for $2.99 here.
Arment sticks to his guns in claiming that the Android ecosystem is plagued with customer payment issues, fragmentation and support, but the success of budget Android tablets such as the Kindle Fire and Nook changed his mind.
Instapaper is one of the few Android apps that run just as perfectly on large tablet screens as they do on smaller smartphone ones. Arment himself claims that Instapaper has become a tablet app, first and foremost, and a smartphone one second in both iOS and Android devices. Going by early reviews, Instapaper seems to be doing a great job at being both.
[via The Verge]
