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Stanza iPhone coup: Pan Macmillan best-sellers readable via Stanza, with direct downloading on the way
November 24, 2008 | 11:43 am
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By David Rothman
Ahead is a slightly trimmed news release from Pan Macmilan and Stanza developer Lexcycle. User-oriented tips are here and here. From Pan Mac site: "At the moment you can download our ebooks onto a desktop computer or a laptop only, and then transfer them to an iPhone. The ability to purchase ebooks and put them directly onto the iPhone will be coming soon from Stanza." – D.R.
Pan Macmillan and Lexcycle, the maker of the highest rated electronic book reader for the iPhone, today announce the availability of the first set of Pan Macmillan titles for Lexcycle’s popular Stanza electronic book reader for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch.
Stanza users will have access to free excerpts from selected best sellers. Over the course of the next 12 months, more of the Pan Macmillan ebook catalog will be made available on Stanza.
“By offering numerous classical literature works for free, we’ve proven that Stanza on the iPhone provides a tremendous reading experience and that iPhone users love the convenience of always having their latest read in their pocket or purse,” commented Neelan Choksi, Chief Operating Officer of Lexcycle. “Our users which come from over 70 different countries have been clamoring to pay for contemporary content, and we are thrilled to offer them some great Pan Macmillan titles for their reading pleasure.”
“Since the iPhone launched its App Store we have been watching developments closely to see which reading apps became most popular. Lexcycle’s Stanza emerged very quickly as a clear leader in its category and so we immediately made contact to ask about developing a strategic partnership to bring our ebooks to readers through this new channel,” commented Sara Lloyd, Digital Director of Pan Macmillan. “This is only the first small step for us into iPhone territory and we intend to extend our programme in partnership with Lexcycle as they develop their platform to make buying in-copyright works for Stanza a more streamlined and secure process.”
Availability
Stanza for the Apple iPhone / iPod Touch is available today from the App Store in iTunes for free download. To learn more, please visit www.lexcycle.com. The Pan Macmillan books are available at www.panmacmillan.com/iphone.
Related: Blog post by Sara Lloyd at Pan Mac.
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Comments:
Sorry, but how is this a coup? Pan Mac have had these epub files available for ages. Nice to see them doing a little deal with Stanza to put some samples in there, but iPhone users have been able to read any epub files this way for some time.
James, that’s an excellent point since nonDRMed e-pub is a standard usable via the Stanza desktop app, but please also consider the new integration—the fact that now you can call up ePub excerpts from Pan Mac from within the Stanza catalog, via direct downloading. Plus, Pan Mac and Stanza are headed toward direct downloading even of for-sale content. If successful, this initiative could lead in time to Kindle-simple downloads. So that’s News, cap-N. Let’s just hope it happens. Thanks. David
Wasn’t trying to knock the downloading part – except O’Reilly have already launched direct downloading of for-sale content, so again, not sure about the ‘coup’.
Heck, for that matter, BooksOnBoard and a romance publisher are also doing direct downloading.
But Stanza lets you download Pan Mac excerpts from within the app’s own catalog. Now that’s special–something besides pub domain books there.
And it’ll be even more special if it can eventually happen within Stanza with Pan Mac’s full-length for-sale books, as well as fancy descriptions and search capabilities to make Kindle-style shopping possible.
What’s more, while BOB and ORA and the rest count, Pan Mac is part of Macmillan.
So that’s why I’m excited even thought there’s plenty of overlap with other efforts with similar goals. You don’t see Random House in there, do you? Pan Mac was first among the majors. So, among other reasons, that’s why it’s a coup. I’m sure Stanza ‘s developers were eager for the deal. But give Pan Mac credit for its foresight.
Feel free to disagree–and have the last word. Thanks, James!- David