Despite the fierce competition among Google Reader Apps, Byline continues to enjoy a healthy lead over its rivals as the dominant gReader app of choice.
While its primary features may not have changed since the launch of Byline 2.0, its speed has as I have yet to find another gReader app that matches Byline’s speed as far as synching goes (note: Gazette 2.0 is claiming to be faster—I’ll put them each to the test later on).
Byline currently has reduced its price to $2 (note: its normally $5), although it is offering new customers who purchase the app today a chance to hook up a friend with the app for free as Milo Bird explains in an email sent to me last night:
(Milo Bird of Byline) Byline is now on sale to celebrate its first birthday on the App Store. The price is $1.99 all day today (Saturday) — a 60% reduction — and the first forty people to forward their iTunes receipts to birthday@phantomfish.com will receive a promo code allowing them to gift a free second copy to a friend. (US only, irritatingly.)
When Byline first came out, I originally paid $10 for this app—and that was before the nice UI plus note sharing feature was added.
While Byline may lack some of the more social functions (i.e. Twitter) of a few gReader apps (like RSS Flash g and iNews), it still has one of the best user interfaces for Google Reader on the App store, which might explain its apparent success (especially in Japan).
