As Apple Ponders Their Subscription Ruling, Readability Goes Full HTML5

A few weeks ago, Readability got word that their iPhone app was rejected by Apple. While obviously, that’s never good news, this was especially hard to take because the reason for the rejection was that they were offering a subscription service without offering Apple’s new in-app subscription layer. They were dumbfounded and pissed off by this rejection because they didn’t see it coming and it didn’t seem to make sense. But rather than dwell on it, they went right back to the drawing board.

The result of that and two weeks of fast-paced work is a full-on HTML5 version of their app, which Readability is releasing today. The web app is specifically designed for both mobile and tablets, using some of the more advanced aspects of HTML5, including offline storage support.

And as you can see in the image above, thanks to HTML5, it will work on a lot more than just Apple devices. Because Apple rejected them, Android is getting some love too. “It’s an update and a statement of sorts,” co-founder Richard Ziade says.

But Readability also hasn’t fully given up on Apple just yet. As we noted a couple weeks ago, they re-submitted their app to try again after hearing talk from no less than Steve Jobs saying the in-app subscription rules were just meant for publishers, and not SaaS apps (which Readability considers itself to be).

They have yet to hear back from Apple on the issue. But perhaps it’s a good sign that they weren’t rejected right away once again.

For now though, it’s HTML5-only for Readability — which, by the way, is exactly what Apple has been suggesting rejected app makers create to work on the iPhone.