White Label App Rush: It’s All About Choice…
The holiday season is shifting into high gear and so are we. You probably already know about our recent app updates and the great new features we’re delivering. But there’s more! We’ve also been rolling out new white label apps for our growing list of customers worldwide.
While we continue to add new customers in North America, most of our new business is coming from abroad. The growing availability of ebooks from publishers worldwide, the growing range of compelling devices at a variety of price points and the availability of cost effective, branded mobile reading/retailing apps (from Bluefire) are giving booksellers of all kinds a shot at competing in this fast growing market.
Here are the new white label apps that we’ve shipped in the last two months:
International
- Booktopia Reader (Australia) – iOS
- eBækur from D3 Midlar ehf (Iceland) – Android / iOS
- eKitabu (Kenya) – Android
- eBook.de Reader from Libre.de Internet GmbH (Germany) – Android / iOS
- Kalahari.com Reader from MIH Internet Africa (Proprietary) Limited (South Africa) – Android / iOS
- Saxo Reader from Saxo.com (Denmark) – Android / iOS
- VLeBooks Reader from The Little Group (United Kingdom) – Android / iOS
North America
- Better World Books – Android / iOS
- HMH eTextbooks from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – Android / iOS
- Reader – eBooks from Sony – iOS
We think this is an impressive list—and it will grow quite a bit over the next few weeks as we release more new partner apps and update our existing customers to the latest iOS and Android builds.
We’re also seeing our customers use their branded apps to expand their reach beyond the traditional app distribution channels (e.g. the iTunes App Store and the Google Play store). For example, Hastings preinstalls their branded app on devices that are sold online and in their stores—giving new device owners an easy way to connect with the company’s impressive goHastings.com online store.
Device manufacturers are also using the Bluefire platform to expand their reach. The release of the iOS Reader™ app – eBooks from Sony gives iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users access to their Reader Store by Sony purchases, helping Sony deliver on their goal of giving their customers the freedom to read the content they love, anytime and anywhere.
Over the past few years we’ve championed the notion of choice. We’re pleased to see that readers have a growing choice of retailers along with a growing choice of reading devices and apps. It’s a good way to start out the holiday season!
– Cliff