While USA Today's app is still making a decent dent in the TouchPad market, it seems the same can't be said for Time Inc., as the magazine publisher has announced that its four TouchPad apps will go dark on March 10th. The Time Magazine, People, Sports Illustrated, and Fortune apps will cease to update just over a year after they were announced alongside the TouchPad, and Time has indicated that subscribers will be refunded for the issues they won't be able to download. Time was lauded as an important content partner at the launch of the TouchPad last February, but given that even HP doesn't seem to be as focused on webOS as it was then, it's not at all surprising that Time is dropping support.
However, this won't necessarily be the end of Time magazine content on the TouchPad, as the publisher will continue pushing its digitally enhanced editions to subscribers on all tablet platforms, including Zinio on webOS. These editions are created alongside the print editions in InDesign with added multimedia content, and all of Time's catalog is available this way. It won't be the native experience of an app, but at least TouchPad owners won't be left completely out in the cold.