Copia, the subsidiary of DMC Worldwide that caused a stir this summer when it announced its plans to bring a $99 color e-reader to market, has now made its social reading and book shopping platform available to the public. The company has also shelved plans to develop its own line of color e-readers.
The platform (also called Copia) is an e-bookstore and social media network rolled into one, combining the full reading, annotating and e-book purchasing functionality of Amazon’s Kindle app (although with significantly less titles) with many of same features offered by shopping sites with Facebook integration and social reading platforms like Goodreads.
Users can access Copia by downloading its apps for the desktop and iPad [iTunes link] (apps for Android, Windows 7 and other mobile platforms are coming soon) at thecopia.com.
After creating an account, users can immediately begin following and inviting people from their existing social networks, including Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads, and connecting with users with similar tastes as they tag books they like. Users can also join discussion groups that align with their favorite subjects and genres, such as mystery or Victorian, and opt to follow those whose discussions they enjoy most to see what books they’ve read and are reading (privacy settings permitting).
The social benefits don’t end there. Those who read e-books using the Copia app will find annotations from their network embedded directly in the margins — a great trigger for discussion. Shopping is also improved. When visiting a book’s page, users can preview basic details alongside two ratings: One based on one to five-star ratings to determine whether a book is well liked by Copia’s users, and a second rating, dubbed the “community value rating,” based on how much discussion a given book inspires.
Users can also opt to scan the reviews of everyone who has left one, or just those in their network. This is much better than the five-star rating systems of Amazon, Apple and the like, allowing users to discover what people whom they trust and admire think of a book, rather than looking into the opinions of strangers whose backgrounds and tastes are unfamiliar and likely incompatible with theirs.
As for the $99 e-reader — that particular plan has been abandoned. The company has instead decided to partner with existing device manufacturers to make their platform as widely available as possible, not dissimilar to the strategy Borders has pursued with Kobo.
Like most beta products, Copia has its fair share of bugs; I had a particularly difficult time trying to download free e-books on its iPad app, although the web experience has been smooth thus far. In addition to moving towards a final version of its desktop, web and iPad apps, Copia is also working to create apps for other mobile devices (Windows 7 is currently in very rough beta, a spokesperson for the company told me), and to include newspapers, magazines, music and video to its offerings.
Try out the platform yourself and let us know what you think.
Reviews: Android, Facebook, Twitter, Windows
More About: amazon, copia, e-books, e-reading, Kindle, publishing, social media
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