In recent weeks, I’ve heard clear excitement from publishers about creating publishing content for the wave of Android tablets coming to market soon (like the Motorola Xoom). Publishers see the growth of Android tablets as key to enabling maximum reach for their content and also essential to building a profitable digital business. Flexibility in how publishers distribute content across these new platforms and marketplaces will be pivotal to growing readership and monetizing content.
To help our customers capitalize on these opportunities I’m excited today to announce that Content Viewer for Android, part of Digital Publishing Suite, is available immediately for download through the Digital Publishing Suite Prerelease program. Compatible for use on Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) and Android 2.2 (Froyo) devices, this new viewer allows publishers to author using Digital Publishing Suite and deploy that content across platforms and different devices.
Major publishers using Digital Publishing Suite are on board to create and distribute content using Content Viewer for Android. Condé Nast, National Geographic and Dennis Publishing are among the first publishers to indicate they will use this new viewer to amplify the reach of their content. National Geographic, in fact, is a significant new publisher using Digital Publishing Suite and will soon be launching “50 Greatest Photographs of National Geographic” on Android (and also iPad).
In addition to flexible distribution across device platforms, Digital Publishing Suite also enables publishers to choose how they will monetize their content. After all, creating a viable digital publishing ecosystem requires that publishers are able to sell their content on popular devices while maintaining long-established direct relationships with their customers. As such, Digital Publishing Suite supports direct entitlement (where publishers can fulfill digital content by integrating with a print subscriber database) as well as in-app purchase (currently through Apple App store, with planned support for Android Market). Adobe helps publishers enable their readers to flexibly buy their favorite digital publications from their mobile marketplace of choice to be read on a wide variety of tablet devices, including the impending wave of Android tablets.
eBooks continue to see tremendous growth in the marketplace, with analyst firm Yankee Group forecasting last week 83% growth in ebook sales year-over-year through 2013. To meet this increasing interest in eBooks, we’re changing the way customers can license Content Server 4, one of the key elements of our Digital Publishing Solution for eBooks. Previously available only direct from Adobe, we’ve engaged a handful of trusted resellers to license our eBook content protection solution. In North America, interested customers can contact Bluefire Productions or Datalogics for more information on Adobe’s cross-platform, interoperable eBook DRM.
In addition to this change, we’ve updated Content Server with a new service that streamlines the ebook authorization process. The new Content Server Vendor ID service integrates a retailer’s account management system with Content Server, allowing users to authenticate eBooks with an email address other than their Adobe ID. This new service streamlines the workflow for authorizing eBooks by eliminating the extra step of acquiring an Adobe ID.
With the launch of the iPad in India last week, content publishers are anxious to take advantage of new digital publishing opportunities in the Asia/Pacific region. One of the first to do so is Mint, a business publication from the second largest English daily newspaper in India – Hindustan Times. Launched four years ago in a partnership with The Wall Street Journal, Mint is the first Indian business daily to launch an iPad publication.
The new app, Mint on the Decade, is a free special edition powered by Adobe Digital Publishing Suite that chronicles events in 22 major areas (like art, media, and sports) over the last decade through images, videos and panorama.
R. Sukumar, Editor of Mint notes that his publication designed this issue specifically for iPad. “We believe Mint readers are smart and usually ahead of the curve. With this in mind, we have put together articles from our own writers and editors, as well as from external experts in the form of an iPad app. Interestingly, unlike other products that go from print to web, this issue was created and designed for the iPad, leveraging digital publishing technology from Adobe, and then repurposed for print as our special anniversary issue” he said.
It also marks the first publication using Digital Publishing Suite in India, as well as increasing adoption around the world. Publishers in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North & South America have all chosen to use Digital Publishing Suite to bring their publications to life on tablet devices.
Since we released the Digital Publishing Suite tools last October, you’ve been able to access them from two locations — through the Digital Publishing Suite Prerelease Program and on the Adobe Labs site. Because the Prerelease Program is able to be updated more quickly than Labs, we’ve made the decision to streamline the programs and focus on Prerelease as the primary avenue for getting the tools into your hands. As such, in the future we won’t be updating the tools on Labs; however, you can find the latest toolset by signing up for the Prerelease Program at http://www.adobe.com/beta (select “Adobe Digital Publishing Suite”). This shift gives users the lastest access to new versions of the tools — including Drop 9, which was made available earlier today (the latest version previously available in Labs was Drop 4). Similar to the Labs program, Prerelease users can also find user forums (which are very actively used, judging from the amount of email in my inbox every morning) to seek advice from each other and solve problems.
When creating a digital publication, designers and production staff have options on how the folio file is displayed and rendered to the reader. One of my colleagues, Bob Bringhurst, today outlined some of these design and production options on his InDesign Docs blog, including answers to the questions below. Take a look at his blog post and see how these options can improve the user experience and readability of your publication.
Single-folio or multi-folio viewer app?
Orientation — vertical, horizontal, or both?
What are the best options for dual-orientation apps?
For multi-issue folios, should the preview folio be included or downloadable?
What’s the best way to provide free preview content?
In recent weeks, I’ve heard clear excitement from publishers about creating publishing content for the wave of Android tablets coming to market soon (like the Motorola Xoom). Publishers see the growth of Android tablets as key to enabling maximum reach for their content and also essential to building a profitable digital business. Flexibility in how publishers distribute content across these new platforms and marketplaces will be pivotal to growing readership and monetizing content.
