To be honest I’ve been kinda skeptical about the viability of high-gloss, tablet-oriented publications. In a world of Buzzfeed & Flipboard, they’ve struck me as nouveau CD-ROMs. I’m pleased to see that evidently I’ve been wrong. Check out some recent findings from Adobe:
The number of downloads of magazine editions created with DPS since its launch in March 2011 passed the 150 million mark this month. Downloads have increased 115% year over year, and DPS-created apps have three times as many unique monthly readers as they did a year ago, Adobe announced. […]
Adobe found that subscribers spend around 50 minutes a month in a DPS app – a number that surpasses the 40 minutes per issue that GfK MRI found among print magazine readers in the fall of 2012. While that’s not an apples-to-apples comparison of engagement, it does indicate that digital magazines are replicating the lean-back print experience. […]
Social sharing tools are becoming increasingly popular, for example, as is the web viewer technology that Adobe added to DPS earlier this year, which lets readers sample tablet editions via their web browser.
I’m finding the paper copy in the mail is now just serving as a reminder to download the latest issue on the tablet.
Would really love to see Adobe add additional features to the DPS tools currently available in InDesign CC. Maybe tie ID to Muse and Edge more closely. Maybe add the ability to include more interactive elements like slider bars and such.