I am a huge Douglas Adams fan so I’m going to print this press release in full. Unfortunately this edition is not available in the US app store, only in the UK store. I asked about US publication, but they told me no, they are not the US rights holder:
Pan Macmillan’s iPhone app version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, created with Missing Ink Studios to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the original books, has stormed the App Store’s paid book apps chart and spent the weekend at No 4, ahead of Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, which had slipped to No 6. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy app has also become the Number 2 Grossing App in the Books category in the UK, and third in Australia. Further, it has now slipped into the Top 100 Grossing Apps for all Apps in the UK at No 95. This makes it the 95th highest cash generating App on the UK App Store over all. The App has also been picked for the “What’s Hot” section of the Store.
The other four books in the Hitchhiker’s series are all climbing up the Top 100 Paid Book Apps chart in the UK.
The enhanced edition, produced in collaboration with Missing Ink Studios and Things Made Out of Other Things, features an interactive DIY cover (a digital take on the ‘sticker covers’ on the new print editions) as well as in-app purchasing of all the other titles in the Hitchhiker’s Trilogy and special content exclusive to the new editions.
In addition The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy app comes with extra features, including YouTube video, a Twitter feed by Marvin the Paranoid Android (http://twitter.com/marvinsmoan), audio samples and excerpts from the radio scripts.
‘Vanilla’ versions of the apps have been available on the App Store since early September and have already been selling strongly. The ‘enhanced’ Apps were submitted to Apple on the 5th October, and the additional enhancements now also become available as updates to anyone who has already downloaded the App upon Apple’s approval.
“Douglas Adams was the first person in the UK to own an Apple Mac; he was a digital guru in his own time and was always committed to making his work available across a range of media. Of course the Hitchhiker’s Guide in itself was the first fictional incarnation of an ‘ebook’! When the App Store launched we just knew we had to make The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy our first enhanced app. It felt like exactly the kind of thing Douglas would have loved,” said Sara Lloyd, Digital Director at Pan Macmillan.
“We are delighted to work with Pan Macmillan on the iconic Hitchhiker’s Guide series and bring these books to the iPhone / iPod Touch. Thirty years on these books are still so fresh and exciting that it seems fitting that they can be discovered and embraced by a new generation in a new format designed specifically for the platform; the iPhone after all is becoming a version of the actual Hitchhiker’s Guide. With our partners, Things Made Out Of Other Things, Missing Ink Studios have developed Apps that provide the ultimate reading experience on the iPhone / iPod Touch platform, augmented with DIY Sticker covers and a wealth of archive material, that both newcomers to the series and long term fans will be proud to own,” commented Ross Sleight, Director at Missing Ink Studios.
Titles released as Apps are:
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Life, the Universe and Everything
So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish
Mostly Harmless
Availability – All five apps are available for immediate purchase and download through Apple’s App Store. Enhanced apps will feature in-app purchasing means that consumers can buy all the books in the Trilogy through any of the apps.
Is the Dan Brown ebook in the UK iTUnes store priced like the ridiculous rip-off Scrollmotion version in the US store? $25 for the ebook? Is that a joke? As of right now, it’s 25th among paid apps in the book category, trailing Binky the Pink Elephant, The Love Dare: 40 Dares and, of course, the 99 cent King James Bible.
Meanwhile, the dead tree pulp version of Brown’s book is available for $18 at Target.com, $16 from Amazon and $14 at Walmart. Kindle version is $9.99 FWIW.
What I would want is an iPhone app that turns the iPhone into the Hitchhiker’s Guide– and I don’t mean the novel. I mean the “book” that say “Don’t Panic!” on the cover!
Not to quibble about a bit of marketing fluff but —
Of course the Hitchhiker’s Guide in itself was the first fictional incarnation of an ‘ebook’!
Not exactly. James H’ Schmitz’s character Telzey Amberdon in his 1962 story “Novice” had a “pocket edition law library” with a view screen and buttons. That fit in a pocket. So… library? Obviously an ebook.
(The same character in later stories uses something like e-mail, the internet, and online gaming in stories written over the next decade (aka Before the Internet). Not that it is relevant to this case. All of which are available at the Baen Free Library.)
And I’m sure there are other examples that pre-date Hithchikers Guide.
Thanks to – andy – for the interesting science fiction history. Isaac Asimov described a “telebook” in a poignant 1951 story about automated education titled “The Fun They Had”. The character Tommy responds to a conventional paper book and its static content with disdain.
This citation is from the Technovelgy website.
Hooray!!!!! Rubbish writing versus joyous illuminated rewarding words results in the ‘right’ outcome. All is right with the world.