Flipboard magazine app is launching a desktop version that will work with any browser

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Flipboard, which sent more than a few shivers down the spines of mainstream magazine publishers with its magazine app for mobile devices, has now launched a desktop version. Prepare for more hand-wringing by publishers, whether or not it's justified.

The appetite for creating your own magazine-style compilations has led to more than two million being made. Now, the custom UI experience in HTML5 will be available to read, and to share, on desktop computers as well as handheld devices. The app’s trademark paginated, card-flipping experience is reproduced in the browser and resizes depending on the monitor.  

The company cautions that the full experience with search, table of contents and so on is not expected to be available until later this year. 

"Downloading the app on a mobile device is still the only way to get the full Flipboard experience," said a release, "including personalizing the social magazine, connecting social media accounts, accessing the Content Guide and creating a Flipboard account."

CEO Mike McCue told The Verge about the backstory of bringing Flipboard to the web. 

“When we started,” he says, “we thought we were going to build a website.” Hearing rumors about Apple’s iPad, they bet on a tablet app, and now, three years after launch, they’re moving back to the desktop. Though McCue agrees that the recent demise of Google Reader played into the decision to build for the web, the team wanted to open up its users’ magazines to a bigger audience, instead of keeping them stuck behind an app wall."