The Guardian newspaper has outlined its plans for the next generation iPhone app, announcing their current £2.99 official application will be phased out in favor of a subscription-based app, sometime before the end of the year.

There will now be two price points: a £2.99 six-month subscription or a £3.99 12-month subscription.  As well as offering the newspaper’s written content, the new app will provide video, live blogs, live football scores, goal alerts and the chance to view reader comments.  Posting comments doesn’t sound like it’ll be activated in the first release, but is expected to appear in a future update.

The subscription app will be joined by an international version which will be ad-supported, and therefore free.  The exact release date hasn’t been given, but they’re ‘working towards a pre-Christmas release’, and an iPad edition is also in the works.

This news ties in with the rumors that the next iOS firmware version will include support for iTunes subscription packages, something we’d last heard mentioned in conjunction with News Corp’s The Daily iPad newspaper.  A December launch for both iOS 4.3 and The Daily has been touted, with the 9th of the month considered the latest potential date.

If you want to pick up the existing Guardian app before it disappears, it’s still on sale here, complete with a warning telling buyers a new version will be out soon.