By Edward Nawotka

In today’s lead story Dean Johnson of Brandwidth, a UK-based app developer, offers his advice on how publishers can harness the power of apps to create and deliver a dynamic reading experience. One of his suggestions is for publishers to each launch their own branded presence on the Apple app store. “It will offer greater visibility and promotional opportunities,” he writes, as well wall as allowing “publishers to control the experience.” Many, if not most, publishers are already represented in the iBookstore, but relatively few have branded apps —  DC Comics and Marvell, are among the most notable. Why, if it’s such a good opportunity to enhance their branding, have publishers launched more fully functional apps? What’s stopping them? Is it largely a function of the fact that publishers outsourced e-book development to others for so long, having ceded the opportunity to the distributors (i.e. e-reader platforms) or is it part of a larger strategy?

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