The BlackBerry World 2011 event finally kicked off yesterday at the Orlando World Center Marriott to deliver a comprehensive view of everything and anything that is BlackBerry. Ringing in some positive news, Kobo has officially unveiled a pre-release version of its much-awaited social eReading application for BlackBerry smartphones.
This latest BBM-based app is claimed to provide BlackBerry handset owners with an all-new mobile eReading experience. The current BBM social platform allows developer to rake in the benefits offered by the BlackBerry platform’s social aspects and push architecture. Building on this, Kobo engineers have come up with a social eReading app for BlackBerry handsets.
“BBM is actively used by over 43 million users and is a leading social platform for communication and collaboration,” expressed Tyler Lessard, VP Global Alliances & Developer Relations, Research In Motion. “We are excited to be working with Kobo to extend the social experience of BBM to their eReading application, allowing users to further connect with their BBM contacts over common reading interests.”
The app provides enthusiastic readers with the ability to take advantage of their social communities in real-time to make eBook purchases or shape their reading selections. With this social eReading app, users can find out if their BBM friends have the book they are planning to buy. Alternatively, people can discuss or debate on content portrayed in the novels or rummage through the contact list’s digital libraries to discover interesting manuscripts.
“Developing a social eReading app for the BBM Social Platform fits perfectly with our strategy to ignite social interaction among readers, providing a new highly engaging dimension for the passionate reading community,” shared Todd Humphrey, EVP of business development, Kobo. “Our integration with BBM is a powerful new way for consumers to share their love of reading with friends, their extended families and everyone in their BBM social network. It gives readers a fun, easy and exciting way to dive deeper into reading.”
In addition to this, the app features privacy control and visibility settings for users to control who access their digital library. The company also proffers eBook solutions that enable consumers to engage in reading anywhere, anytime and on any device. Its extensive online eBook catalogue further boasts of the recent releases, favorites, limited editions and classics in numerous languages.
Kobo provided consumers with a sneak peek at its newest social eReading app during the BlackBerry World 2011 General Session, held yesterday.