Flipboard Triples Daily Usage in Two Months After Speed Improvements

Flipboard, the leading social news app for iPad, has tripled daily usage in the last two months, CEO Mike McCue said in a chat on Thursday. The app now sees eight to nine million daily “flips.”

Flips are Flipboard’s swiping motion utilized to view additional content, so the figure could be taken as a loose equivalent for page views.

Two months ago, Flipboard got three to four million flips per day, McCue said.

McCue attributed the jump in usage to various factors that made his company’s iPad app faster. March 10 was the release date of Flipboard’s 1.2 version, which among other improvements boosted speed. That was also the day before the launch of the iPad 2, which Apple has said is up to two times faster than the first iPad, with graphics that can be nine times as fast.

Plus, after all the hype around Flipboard, many iPad 2 owners probably downloaded the app first thing after picking up their new device–I know I did.

McCue said the number of Flipboard users has doubled in the same time period, but he did not specify a number.

Flipboard, which syndicates and prettifies content from publishers, curators, and users’ friends, is hard at work on its first iPhone version, which is planned for release this summer.

The iPhone version will be catered to power users more so than the iPad app, said McCue.

I mentioned to McCue that Flipboard might now be part of my weekend routine but it’s too lightweight for my weekday thirst to tap into real-time news and conversation. McCue responded that the new iPhone app is designed to be a weekday tool for people like me.

So if Flipboard for iPhone is a power-user social news tool, will it replace the leader of that category, TweetDeck–which Twitter is now reportedly close to buying?

McCue, who happens to be on the board of Twitter, said for some users that may indeed be the case.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Flipboard recently raised $50 million at a $200 million valuation.