ENTRIES TAGGED "apps"
Suggestion for Amazon: Open source the Kindle apps
Open source development could lead to a world class set of ereader apps.
Joe Wikert has some advice for Amazon: Turn the Kindle apps into open source projects and enlist the help of the community to enhance and improve them.
Anatomy of an ebook app
Lessons learned while building a top 20 ebook for the iPad.
"Rabbit and Turtle's Amazing Race" was featured by Apple (leading to a 3-5X bost in paid downloads) and for a time became one of the top grossing App Store ebooks. Mark Sigal discusses the lessons he learned while developing and marketing the title.
Amazon building its own Android App Market?
A look at the pros and cons of an Amazon-run Android market.
While the carriers see the Android Market as an opportunity to build tightly-controlled versions of the Market, non-exclusivity opens the door for companies that (a) know retailing and merchandising much better than Google, (b) aren't in the awkward position of having to play nice with the carriers, and (c) have a global presence independent of carrier coverage and relationships. Enter Amazon.
What publishers can and should learn from "The Elements"
Theodore Gray on true interactivity and apps vs. ebooks.
Theodore Gray, author/creator of "The Elements," shares his thoughts on interactivity in ebooks, why programmers should be treated like authors, and why he believes the print form will continue to exist for quite some time.
Customer Loyalty for Mobile Devices
Some of the most interesting data on trends in mobile development has been coming from Flurry, an app analytics company (developers insert little snippets of Flurry code in their apps to gather usage data). They've plotted frequency of usage against app "retention" (what percentage of buyers returned to the app within 90 days of downloading it), and put each…
The App Store and the Long Tail Part 2: The Real "DRM" At Stake
A few weeks ago I wrote about how the small number of sales from many different countries were adding up to more than the large number of sales from the US in the App Store for our books. Our success got me wondering why there’s not stronger interest from other publishers, especially trade publishers, in iPhone apps (besides concerns about pricing and the approval process). Then as I was looking at rankings for some of the top paid book apps, I spotted a possible answer.
Would an Apple Tablet be an Ereader? Yes and No.
Last Friday the latest round of rumors of an Apple Tablet swelled considerably after a piece from Apple Insider asserted the device is now on the 2010 product roadmap. The news sparked considerable interest among publishers, who apparently see this development as a “Kindle killer” that will upset Amazon’s apparent dominance of the ebook ecosystem. It’s understandable from the perspective of a publisher, but if this device actually exists, it’s doubtful anyone at Apple sees it as an “ereader” any more than it sees the iPhone as “a GPS device.”