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App developer TradeMobile is to rebrand as Beyond the Story as it prepares to launch one of its most ambitious projects yet: an app version of The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, developed with Penguin, publisher of the print version.
Founded in July 2005, the company's c.e.o. Jen Porter believes that it has now created a scaleable platform that sbould allow it or a publisher to create many more apps effectively. Porter said that it was "impossible to support the global market [for book apps] doing one at a time".
Beyond the Story works in partnership with publishers based on a revenue share, and will look to license the platform. Last year it launched a 'Kings and Queens' app featuring UK historian David Starkey in partnership with Sky Television and HarperCollins. Kirk Bowe, chief technology officer, said the aim was to empower publishers to develop their own apps using the plaform. "We give them the tools to put the creativity—'secret sauce'—on top, while we continue to develop the central core."
The Anne Frank app, to be launched later this year, has replicated on screen the look and feel of Frank's diary, it also features an architectural representation of the house where Frank was hidden, along with visual replicas of individual pages, that can be viewed in their original Dutch, or translated into English. Readers will be able to tap words in the text to hear Helena Bonham Carter reading diary extracts, and be able to watch related videos.