ENTRIES TAGGED "mobile"
Cultural capital goes commercial
Mobile retail access is a vital part of an overarching brand experience
It wasn’t one of my proudest moments when, a week before Christmas last year, I was hunched over my smartphone towards the back of the famous Hamley’s Toy Store on London’s Regent Street, composure tethered to an elusive bar of 3G network. The thing was, that bar had been easier to find in-store than the toy I planned on presenting my nephew with for Christmas. When I placed my order on Amazon with a plethora of merchandise within arm’s length, a nagging sense of irony did not escape me – nor did a whole new understanding of retail pain points. To be fair, Christmas shopping in a metropolitan area probably blasts through higher-than-average pain thresholds.
Digital publishing and the loss of intimacy
The cognitive overhead involved in reading a book has increased tremendously
Reading used to be an intimate experience. Even Amazon, the pioneer in digital publishing, branded its Kindle with a child reading alone under a tree. Books were specially designed to disappear into the background as much as possible, helped by a laundry list of conventions as to language, punctuation, format, and structure, thus allowing readers to direct all their attention and cognitive powers to the text at hand.
The first digital platforms made a decent job of emulating the traditional experience. Certainly, the overhead of managing an Amazon account is something readers could do without, but allowances had to be made. Black text on a white screen was still the reference, and great pains were taken to ease users into this new experience: options were few, and the physicality of the book was heavily reflected in the shape and size of the device.
Reading experience and mobile design
The convergence is inevitable
It’s all about user experience. Once you get past whether a book is available on a particular reading platform, the experience is the distinguishing factor. How do you jump back to the table of contents? How do you navigate to the next chapter? How do you leave notes? How does it feel? Is it slick? Clunky? Satisfying? Difficult? Worth the money?
MEF Global Consumer Survey 2012
Mobile trends covered in this report and TOC NY session
MEF enables community networking and provides information on the mobile industry just like TOC does for the publishing industry. They also produce reports summarizing the state of the mobile commerce marketplace. Their latest report is called Global Consumer Survey 2012 and you’ll find the executive summary of it here.
Responsive design works for websites, why not for digital comic books?
Pablo Defendini on employing adaptive web design in comic books.
In a keynote address, Open Road Media's Pablo Defendini explored what HTML and CSS can offer to digital comic book design.
MagAppZine's goal: From PDF to app in about 15 minutes
MagAppZine looks to make mobile app creation easier for publishers.
The next TOC Sneak Peek webcast will feature Paul Canetti, founder of MagAppZine, a platform that allows publishers to create custom apps. Here, Canetti talks about starting the company and the benefits he sees for publishers.
Publishing News: Direct "Potter" ebook sales fire up the book world
Harry Potter goes digital (and exclusive), Amazon tablet rumors abound, and faster horses won't cut it
In the latest Publishing News: Pottermore will exclusively sell Harry Potter ebooks, Amazon tablets could arrive in August, and Joe Wikert talks about creating mobile experiences that surpass expectations.
People don't need faster horses
Joe Wikert on creating mobile experiences that surpass expectations.
As a part of an ongoing series looking at mobile disruption, Joe Wikert talks about how mobile, specifically econtent, can offer consumers something more than what they've previously experienced.
Ereading Update: Ebooks, tablets, and app confusion
Kindle editions eclipse paperbacks ahead of schedule and tablet competition increases.
In this Ereading Update: Ebook demand is fueling a highly contested battle for tablet market share. Plus, a brief look at new tablets from LG and Brainchild.
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.