PMN offers tablet computers with apps subscriptions

Philadelphia Media Network, owner of The Inquirer, Daily News, and Philly.com, will offer up to 5,000 Arnova 10 G2 tablet computers for sale starting Tuesday for as little as $99 to customers who agree to purchase discount subscriptions to three applications developed for the newly released Android tablet, company officials said.

The media company said the total cost of a tablet package, which requires customers to agree to a one- or two-year subscription to the apps, amounted to discounts of more than 50 percent off the retail value of the tablet and subscriptions.

Customers who sign up for a two-year subscription to the package of apps will pay $99 for the tablet plus $10 every four weeks, for a total price of about $359, a discount of more than 60 percent off their combined retail price. Customers who agree to a one-year subscription will pay $129 for the tablet plus $13 every four weeks, for a total of $298 that is more than half off the unbundled price. The tablet is not yet sold in the United States, but has an expected retail price of $250, the company said.

The package includes replica-edition apps of The Inquirer and Daily News, in which tablet users can view digital images of every page of the newspapers, or click on headlines to see enlarged versions of each article or column. Subscriptions to those apps, initially developed for owners of Apple’s popular iPad tablet, each sell separately for $2.99 a week.

The offer also includes a newly developed multimedia app that expands on The Inquirer's content with photo galleries, video, social-media links, and other new features, the company said. Separate subscriptions to the new app will eventually be sold for $45 a year, the company said.

It provided an early look at its offer to Adweek, a trade publication, which described it Monday as a "bold tablet plan" and "a big bet on the tablet market." Adweek said the tablet had drawn initial sponsorship from Comcast, Main Line Health, and Wells Fargo.

Gregory J. Osberg, Inquirer publisher and PMN chief executive officer, told Adweek that the Arnova tablet's French manufacturer, Archos, had agreed to "let the papers keep the subscription revenue and consumer data, which will enable it to study usership." After a beta-test phase with the first 5,000 tablets, PMN hopes to launch the tablet more widely on "Black Friday," the day after Thanksgiving that traditionally starts the holiday shopping season.