Inkling

Inkling
Industry Software
Founded August 2009
Headquarters San Francisco, CA
Key people
 Matt MacInnis, CEO
Products Software as a Service and consumer E-books
Website Inkling.com

Inkling is an American company based in San Francisco, California. It produces a set of tools that businesses use to build, manage, and distribute digital content, which includes its cloud-based authoring environment, called Inkling Habitat.

History

Matt MacInnis, Josh Forman, and Robert Cromwell founded Inkling in August 2009. While working at Apple Inc., MacInnis heard rumors about a new device (which would later become the Apple iPad). Believing the device had potential to host interactive electronic textbooks, he left Apple to found the new company several months before the iPad was officially announced.[1] MacInnis became the CEO, with Forman as the VP, Product and Cromwell as the VP, Engineering.[2] In August 2010, the company launched its iPad app and announced partnerships with John Wiley & Sons, McGraw-Hill, and Wolters Kluwer.[3]

The company initially focused on creating interactive e-book versions of existing textbooks. In 2011, it added other types of general-interest non-fiction titles, such as travel guides and cookbooks.[4] The company creates e-books in HTML5 and includes features not normally available in conventional e-books such as video, interactive animations, and the ability to share notes with other readers.[5]

In early 2014, Inkling pivoted from a business-to-consumer model to a business-to-business model by selling their authoring platform, Inkling Habitat, to publishers.[6] Today, the majority of their revenue comes from licensing fees under the Software as a Service model. Both publishers and enterprises use Inkling’s cloud-based content creation tools. Inkling no longer produces e-books, but continues to sell its existing e-books through its online bookstore, publishers’ online stores, and the Apple App Store.

Products

Inkling Habitat

Inkling Habitat is a cloud-based authoring environment. Its collaboration features include assigned comments and version control on a single source of truth. The platform also comes with drag-and-drop “widgets,” or interactive elements, such as slideshows and quizzes. To verify how content will respond to different devices and layouts Habitat has a cross-device preview with responsive web design.

Inkling Axis

Inkling Axis is a web reader and mobile app for content created in Habitat. On the web, Habitat content integrates with websites upon embedding a segment of code. For Android and iOS use, Inkling Axis deploys content through a branded mobile app.

Inkling Latitude

Inkling Latitude is a software development kit. It allows companies to build interactive content within existing web and mobile applications.

Press

In February 2014, Fast Company (magazine) named Inkling one of the most innovative companies, calling the company’s product “a huge advancement over the usual, flat boring PDFs under glass.”[7] In August 2014, Inkling was named #105 on the Inc. (magazine) 500 list of the fastest-growing companies.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Bury, Erin (20 January 2012). "Digital Textbook Publishing Turns Into David vs. Goliath Battle". Betakit. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
  2. ↑ Wan, Tony (17 July 2013). "An Inkling of the Future of Books". edSurge. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
  3. ↑ Ingram, Mathew (23 August 2010). "Inkling Says the iPad is the Textbook of the Future". Gigaom. Retrieved 21 August 2013.
  4. ↑ Graham, Jefferson (21 December 2012). "Inkling cooks up multimedia iPad books". USA Today. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
  5. ↑ Kucera, Danielle (17 February 2013). "Inkling gives e-books more visual punch". SFGate. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
  6. ↑ http://www.fastcompany.com/3028090/bottom-line/what-happened-when-a-digital-textbook-company-was-forced-to-redefine-its-custome
  7. ↑ http://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies/2014/inkling
  8. ↑ http://www.inc.com/magazine/201409/ryan-underwood/inc.500-matt-macinnis-quit-apple-to-start-inkling.html

External links