The Evolution of Time Magazine’s iPad App: Here’s What’s Next

Time Magazine’s first iPad app was a rush job. Time Warner’s (TWX) magazine unit called the development process “Project Noah,” because the staff got it up and running in 40 days. So it’s going to keep adding bells and whistles over time.

Here’s a look at where it’s headed, via a video Time Inc. showed off at a panel discussion this morning. About half the features in this clip–embedded video, that cool table-of-contents feature with geographic hotspots, chat, sharing–don’t exist yet, but will eventually, the publisher says.

Compare and contrast to the promotional video for the first iteration of the magazine, launched with Apple’s (AAPL) iPad in early April.

Future tense:

Present tense:

If you’re someone who balked at the app’s price when it debuted, you’ll continue to be bummed out, as it’s staying at $5 per issue for now. But I’d guess that when Time rolls out subscriptions later this year, it will offer a 52-week bundle at something like $35.

Meanwhile, you can expect other features to crop up on Condé Nast’s well-received Wired app in the coming months, too.