What are the benefits of being platform agnostic?

When publishers have worked out that they want to make a digital product the next big question they face is which platform do they produce it for? There are a confusing array of formats and devices on the market but publishers must try to develop something that is going to sell and preferably not cost too much money upfront. Part of whether a project like this sells is down to the quality of the content and the presence of a market but much is also due to the responsiveness of the design to the consumer’s needs and the way it is marketed. Publishers have to make a decision on these principles about whether to produce something in a specific format and for such a market as the Amazon Mobipocket, or to go for a file that will work across many devices such as the Epub format which is supported by Nook and Kobo among others. Platforms and devices are not the same thing of course, with Amazon’s Kindle platform available as an iOS app for example, but for various revenue related reasons such as the cut they take from publishers, to many in digital publishing they are effectively interchangeable.

The most obvious benefit of using a platform that has already been established to produce your eBook or app is the relative ease of development and the cost savings that come with it. For instance you already know the parameters both technically and aesthetically of your product and you may only have to make one or two versions overall to cover the entire market. Most platforms also have their own clearly defined and sometimes large markets that allow publishers to capitalise on the goodwill and consumer loyalty that has built up around major brands. Often publishers face difficulty in getting their digital products to market, but this is not generally a problem for those using platforms linked to large retailers who often manage the whole supply chain extremely well on their behalf. This means that publishers are free to fulfil their roles as content developers and curators without having to worry too much about retail logistics such as customer and technical support. Platforms with a critical mass of take up can also be helpful in the fight against piracy.

So with all these benefits available why do publishers bother to make their own bespoke engines to run their products or use more open formats such as EPub? Their main motivation is money, as major retailers typically quantify the advantages of selling through their stores. The cost to use a retailer/platform provider’s software is therefore as high as the market will allow, and the near monopoly enjoyed by some retailers over Ebooks for example, means that they can be punitive. Technology companies will take a cut from every product sold on their devices and using their operating systems, whether this is a percentage like in the Apple App store or 50-70% discount from the publishers for EBooks sold on Amazon. It also means that consumers may pay more for hardware and software because of higher mark ups and this makes the industry anti-competitive.

If publishers do decide to go it alone or get in help from outside agencies to make their products unique they have more freedom over elements of design and functionality, and can tailor the format to suits the individual needs of their content and customer. It is easier then to establish their own niche and garner a reputation for quality in a particular field. This way, publishers can also deal with more retailers and their future business is not tied to an external company’s fortunes. Although they may have to pay software developers more in the initial stages of development, publishers using bespoke or open platforms have more control over pricing and can deal directly with their own market, meaning that they have access to the sales data and market research that will drive future acquisitions. Usually what hampers innovative development and long research timeframes is the need for revenue balanced against the potential cost of abandoning an available market. No one approach works for every type of digital project and more commercial products may work better with a mainstream format.

What publishers cannot afford to do is simply to try to recreate the print experience on screen. A digital product has to prove its own need to exist, the HTML5 based Epub3 standard for example provides exciting opportunities for publishers using multimedia content, and to do this we need to keep as many platforms viable as possible.

Nosy Crow sell their book apps through the Apple app store

 

Mind Candy have worked closely with Penguin Children’s to develop the Moshi Monster brand using the Unity3d gaming engine.

Moshi Monsters in game footage

 

Random House have developed their own narrative gaming experience: Black Crown working with Failbetter Games.