• minOnline, Wednesday, June 24, 2009 9:45 AM

Esquire, Harvard Business Review and Bon Appetit are among the magazine titles that will launch iPhone applications in coming months through a partnership with developer ScrollMotion, which also created the People magazine app.

After the newly released Apple iPhone 3G S sold over 1 million units last weekend, interest in the device as a platform for magazines is heating up. "What we never had before was a good enough device that rivaled what it was like to read in the magazine space," says ScrollMotion co-founder Josh Koppel. "With touch screens, the iPhone is a magic slate."

That slate may realize some real money. People charges $1.99 for its app and the new operating system for the iPhone allows publishers to create subscription models. Koppel says mobile is shaping up to offer publishers an "appreciable revenue stream." Studies show that consumers want to grab bits and pieces of media throughout the day. "That is the breakthrough idea" of magazines on mobile phone "and why people are liking it so much. We have the ability to make a magazine work across all the different content spaces," says Koppel.

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