Around the world and in particular in India, publishers, news agencies, and even TV channels are beginning to look for new ways to distribute their content. It is due primarily to traditional work methods with the growing number of Internet users no longer giving the necessary results. People are used to getting information quickly and for free on the Internet, and it becomes difficult for traditional media to compete with it. Nevertheless, the emergence of advanced smartphones, Internet tablets, and various e-book reading devices can already remedy this situation today.
People are reluctant to pay for content on the Internet but are willing to pay for it on portable devices that give them a similar way to traditional media to get information. There are many digital distribution methods at the moment, but this article will look at the most interesting and promising ones. In addition, the Internet allows users to discover various content, such as online casino Bollywood on bollywood-casino.com. Such gambling clubs are in great demand, along with blogs and mobile applications.
What types of content are currently the most popular? Some of these resources include:
- Blogs;
- Podcasts;
- Online magazines.
Audience
Every day there are more and more iPhone and Android smartphone users. During the second quarter of 2010 alone, Apple managed to sell 8.75 million phones, and during the first three days of iPhone 4 sales, 1.7 million people managed to buy it. The statistics of Google are not less impressive; according to the company, every day all over the world, users activate 160 thousand Android smartphones. As it turned out, there are also many devices users on these platforms. According to a study by iVox, commissioned by Stanly, which involved 1,000 people, in our country, there are about 102 thousand iPhone users and about 26 thousand owners of smartphones with Android. In general, the phone Apple occupies 15% of the market of mobile platforms, while devices running on Google’s operating system only 5%.
The statistics for internet tablets are also promising. Apple has managed to sell 3 million iPads in just 80 days since sales. Moreover, earlier, Forrester predicted that in 2010, the U.S. would be selling 3.5 million Internet tablets, and by 2012 they will be sold more than netbooks. As we can see, the famous analytical company was wrong, and the Internet tablets are rapidly gaining popularity. While the iPad rules the market, it will soon be accompanied by many devices on the Android platform, both from famous and obscure brands.
Digital content on smartphones
At the moment, it is easiest to create an application, which can be just a newsfeed or even a whole magazine with photos and videos, and start distributing it on the iPhone and Android devices. Apple and Google provide flexible development tools and an efficient system of digital software distribution.
To start developing for iPhone, you will need to register with Apple as a developer. To do this, you’ll need to pay for one of three packages: individual, for companies, and corporations. The first two will cost $99, and you can use them to publish your applications in the App Store; and the third package costs $299, but only if you want to distribute your applications through the internal corporate network. To begin developing for the iPhone, you need a computer with a Mac OS X operating system on an Intel processor, as well as the iPhone SDK. After registration with Apple, it can be downloaded for free. It is worth noting that Apple charges 30% of the profits from its sales to distribute a paid application in the App Store, so it should be considered when pricing. The cost of programs in the App Store can range from $0.99 to $999.
To create an Android app, you also need to register as a developer, but you only have to pay Google $25 to do so. The Android SDK is available for free for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. It simplifies the creation of programs for Android because you can make do with the available fleet of computer hardware. For the distribution of a paid application in the Android Market, Google also takes money in 30% of the cost of each program sold. It is possible to set the price of the applications at any price.
The minimum team for developing applications for these platforms should consist of a project manager, a designer, an iPhone developer (Objective-C), and an Android developer (Java). Also, do not forget about testing, which can be done either by the developer himself or by a separate person, which is more reasonable to involve in long-running projects. As a result, the company will have to form and keep 4-5 people, which can be costly. Another way to get the required application can be the involvement of third-party developers. According to Pavel, the most straightforward iPhone app can cost a news outlet €2000, which is the average price on the market. More severe projects such as CNN’s program will require a budget of €6-8 thousand, which is approximately 50% more complicated for an Android application than for an iPhone, and the cost of such work will be proportionate to the effort involved.
If you want to find out if a particular online entertainment site has its application, we advise you to visit the top article. Here you will find the answers you need.
Digital Content on Internet Tablets
With displays ranging from 5 to 12 inches and a higher screen resolution than smartphones, internet tablets conveniently allow you to view the information. There are already many news apps and electronic versions of glossy magazines for the iPad. One of the most famous programs of this kind is the electronic version of the magazine Wired. Its first edition was distributed through the App Store for $4.99 and downloaded over 90,000 times. Although it is worth noting here that many customers saw this price as a subscription for an entire year, and the next issue, Wired had to drop the price to $3.99. But it is still a good figure. The program for the magazine Wired was developed based on the new Digital Publishing platform from Adobe, which is designed as an extension of the InDesign CS5 package for DTPers and uses the Objective-C programming language.
With Digital Publishing, publishers can create electronic versions of their magazines with interactive content, including videos, animated images, and advertising. In addition, applications can be made for the iPad using the iPhone SDK, and the same rules apply to development and distribution as those outlined above for the iPhone. Another exciting way to distribute content on the iPad is to create PDF versions of magazines. In the new revision of the e-book reader, iBooks, available free for the iPad, Apple has added the ability to read PDFs. It allows publishers to create and sell protected PDF versions of their magazines cost-effectively. The disadvantage here is that it is impossible to organize the distribution of such content through the App Store, and it is necessary to implement the magazine’s distribution through your site or partner networks.
On the other hand, it is probably the only opportunity to make money by selling the electronic version of the iPad. However, since the exact number of these devices in our country is unknown, it is safe to say that they could not be brought in large quantities, primarily small “gray” delivery. Thus, the cost of creating an application of the magazine or newspaper for the iPad may exceed many times the income from its sales or advertising on it.