How to innovate?

Apps for English Learners

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The Apps for English Learners are one of the examples of an innovative approach of the Cambridge University Press. They have taken an existing product, ELT books and have delivered them through a new platform, those being Apple’s iPhone, iPad and other competing Smartphones. This has resulted in the opening of new mode of distribution and has thus captured new readers. Although their main aim is to disseminate knowledge, and their policy allows them to make losses, apps are already a new source of revenue for the Press and exist in a symbiotic relation with the publications that they are based on. It is due to the fact that CUP understands the power of having a sufficient marketing strategy that is tailored to the individual product that enables it to be promoted successfully. Their approach can be seen as an incremental innovation within the established framework of sources and audience. In producing apps they are utilising a prime opportunity to make their materials more attractive for the user at the time whenthe market is highly-competitive and the reader is becoming more demanding.