The update comes along with a shift to a subscription payment model, with the newspaper charging £2.99 for six months and £3.99 for 12 months access. The initial version of the app, launched in December 2009, charged a one-off payment of £2.39.
The new version allows users to view video content from within the app and reader comments below stories, although the ability to add comments via the iPhone will not be added until a later stage.
The update also introduces a new homepage layout, the ability to view content in portrait or landscape mode, and a new football scores service with free goal updates.
Janine Gibson, editor, guardian.co.uk, said: "It’s been just over a year since we launched our first app and since then the expectations of users have understandably grown, alongside the technology itself. We were thrilled with the success of the original app, and over the last twelve months we’ve listened very carefully to user suggestions in order to consider how their Guardian experience on iPhone and iPod Touch can be improved."
Since launching in December 2009, the Guardian app has been downloaded more than 200,000 times, with more than 75 per cent of those users continuing to use the app on a monthly basis.
The app won the 2010 Association on Online Publishers award for innovation, as well as the 2010 Newspaper Awards Fujifilm Grand Prix and the 2010 WSA mobile award for m-Media and news.
The current version of the app will no longer be available through the App Store but won't be swtiched off for six months.
In a bid to increase its mobile reach within the US – which currently accounts for just 8 per cent of downloads – the Guardian will integrate US advertising and offer the new app as a free download to US users.
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