FT Drops Mobile Apps for Good; Launches FT Labs

The Financial Times has announced that there is no turning back in its mobile strategy and that it will kill off its iPad and iPhone app for good, having launched a HTML5 web app and pulled its iOS app off iTunes Store in mid-2011.

Since then it has left the iOS version to be used by subscribers with it already installed, but over the next few months it will close this down.

Earlier this year the FT bought Assanka, the development house which coded its HTML5 web app, and this week announced it had been rebranded as “FT Labs”.

Andrew Betts, FT Labs founder: “FT Labs will become one of the Financial Times’ centres of innovation. Our expertise puts us at the forefront of emerging web technologies and we will use this knowledge and reputation to not only develop innovative products and services, but also bring the FT further into the web development community.”

Mobile is now said to contribute 12 percent of new FT subscriptions and 19 percent of FT.com web traffic.