If you're looking to publish and get your word, product, magazine or multimedia experience out - which is the best medium for you to publish by? Martin Carter investigates.
O
ne of the most interesting questions I have been asked recently
is which is best, an App, an iBook or a Newsstand Publication. In truth there is no simple
answer, each platform has its own strengths and weaknesses. Applications are incredibly benefi cial for doing one thing and doing it very well. If you have a rich source of content then an App can provide a digital home for the content. For example consider
the BBC iPlayer App which provides a compelling electronic infrastructure which allows you to watch previously aired content - and who wouldn’t deny apps as the platform of choice for games! It should also be said that Apps came
fi rst to the digital marketplace and as a consequence have also been used to provide the digital wrapper for goods and services in a very effective way. If you are reading this article then you may
already be familiar with Apple’s Newsstand , one of the newest and most infl uential ways for digital content to be distributed on the iPad. Of course Newsstand is just another way
Apple's cash reserve is enough to pay off the total public debt of 8 countries within the EU Slovakia, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, Cyprus, Estonia, Malta.
way to distribute periodical information like magazines as it offers the push capabilities of an App whilst retaining the look and feel of a bookstore. This is perhaps why it is being adopted so quickly by mainstream publishers who also recognise that the world is changing from hardcopy consumption to electronic consumption day-by-day. And fi nally we have iBooks which is
of publishing right? In fact no, Newsstand is one of the most compelling and media rich ways of publishing now available. You may well be familiar with the older platforms like PDFs and ePubs which allowed limited information like web links and images to be made available in e-print, but Newsstand is a quantum leap in publishing, allowing people to immerse themselves in slideshows, presentations, 3D graphics, videos and, of course, good old text. Newsstand is a great
perhaps the closest thing to a regular book in that it demands an ISBN number in order to be published. Having said that, if you already have a hardcopy book and you are happy to provide it through the iBooks store then iBooks offers you a simple and compelling way to do exactly that. Whichever of the three routes you choose, remember to think of your audience fi rst, which medium makes most sense for them. If you have written one book then put the effort into publishing on iBooks. If you have great fl exible content then consider an App front end and if you are considering periodic content then look no further than newsstand. Martin Carter is a technology consultant who provides assistance with Digital Publishing on Apple, Kindle and Android platforms. b info@thebestgroupinternational.co