Time for another press release this morning. According to the release these applications will be released first on the Android platform. I’ll see them next week and the IDPF and BEA.
[OverDrive} will release a series of apps that will combine eBooks, audiobooks, and interactive and multimedia content into one user-friendly application. The apps will be available for both mobile and desktop operating systems, including Windows®, Mac®, iPhone®, iPad®, Android™, Windows Mobile®, and BlackBerry®. Millions of end users will benefit from a single software solution for all OverDrive-supplied content, as well as on-the-go access to eBooks from OverDrive-powered library and retail catalogs.
“The significant investments that libraries and retailers are making in premium eBook collections will have even greater value when users can access titles on their mobile devices,” said David Burleigh, director of marketing for OverDrive. “Existing eBook collections, as well as upcoming interactive and multimedia content in a variety of genres, will be compatible with apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, and other mobile operating systems.”
My question, will this work with DRM’d materials or only on the few non-DRM’d books?
Overdrive’s primary business is serving out DRM’ed content. Their getting into the front-end business is actually a belated but necessary move to ensure they don’t get steam-rollered in the Adobe/Kindle/iBooks DRM war.
Now they need to license their client to dedicated reader manufacturers.
When is the iphone app due to be released?