Renaissance scores iPad app deal with Penguin US

NZX-listed Renaissance has piggybacked off its success with its iPad application My Secret Diary earlier this year by securing a deal with publishing giant Penguin Group USA.

Targeted at the tween market, My Secret Diary was created by Renaissance (NZX: RNS) partly to showcase the ability of its 15-strong design team and software development in New Zealand generally.

While the Renaissance team are keeping secret the details of the work it’s doing for Penguin, it ties in with the release of a book or a series, in the New Year.

Penguin's US division approached Renaissance after My Secret Diary featured in the “New and Noteworthy” section of Apple’s iPad app store in the United States in August.

The app allows users to enter text, photos, video and music on diary pages.

It remained on the main iPad app store for nearly a month and was downloaded more than 50,000 times in its first six weeks.

Penguin online development manager Katherine McCahill said the publisher was impressed with the quality, creativity and simplicity of the development and saw its potential to “bring to life” the works of some authors.

“With advances in technology, many of the works by our authors can be brought to life in new ways through apps that really draw the reader in and enable them to interact more with the content,” she said.

“We are increasingly seeing a trend towards people wanting to consume more content via an online channel and apps, such as the one we are developing with Renaissance, add a whole new dimension to what we can offer our customers.”

For Renaissance, the deal helps to cement its ambition to be a global player using skills, experience and talent embedded in New Zealand.

Application development manager Paul Dyson (pictured) and chief marketing officer Warwick Grey took some time out to chat with the National Business Review and promised there would be more ahead.

While explaining that 2009 was the year of the netbook and the iPad has dominated this year, Renaissance was clear that it was searching for evermore opportunities on what will be next pointing out that Google’s Android smartphone operating system alongside Microsoft Windows were likely to gain headway soon.

The success of the My Secret Diary app was largely driven by the kudos applied to it by Apple and how it was showcased on the site. That attention led to Penguin’s interest which eventually saw the deal made that will lead to the global release of Renaissance’s effort alongside the book.

Mr Dyson said he hoped the app would be the first of many developed with Penguin.

“That a team of New Zealand designers can attract the interest of a world-renowned company based in New York really reinforces the fact that we live in a global village,” he said.

Mr Grey said the showcasing potential of the work being done was a focus.

“This will make us a credible partner for businesses who are looking for partners but haven’t had the experience of working with us yet,” Mr Grey said.

“It will help get new business and that will snowball.”

Renaissance has also tweaked My Secret Diary as a more corporate-looking app that is pre-installed in iPad devices going out as part of a promotion for Mondo Travel.

The Penguin deal is timely as app developers gear up for the first “unconference” dedicated just for those developing software for the iPhone and iPad platforms.

Jade Software is hosting the December 4 shindig, moderated by open source guru Nathan Torkington.

Jade chief innovation officer John Ashcroft said the company had been inundated with requests for development of iPhone and iPad applications and encouraged by the iOS developer community to organise a conference to share creative ideas, experiences and opportunities.

In July, Renaissance announced its MagnumMac retail business had returned to profitability six months ahead of plan.