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HarperCollins Children?s Books launches first paid apps

Seeking to target kids, HarperCollins Children?s Books has launched its first paid iPhone applications.

The applications, ABC Song and 123: Ants Go Marching are aimed at preparing children for preschool by featuring engaging material. Educational online service Curious Puppy created the applications.

?Our Curious Puppy digital imprint was created to house our new interactive children?s apps under one cohesive brand and destination,? said Susan Katz, president and publisher of HarperCollins Children?s Books, New York.

?These apps were developed as a way to help young children continue learning all year long, with entertaining experiences and fun content,? she said.

Curious Puppy provides educational online games and mobile applications based on children?s books.

HarperCollins Children?s Books claims to be the leading publisher of children?s books. Its portfolio includes children?s classics Charlotte?s Web, The Chronicles of Narnia, Goodnight Moon, Where the Sidewalk Ends, the Ramona series, and Where the Wild Things Are.

It?s elementary
Both applications promote color and shape identification, word association, memorization and other skill-enhancing games.

The ABC Song App features age-appealing music and images, introducing each letter and its sound through speech and song.

The 123: Ants Go Marching App establishes basic math, numbers and language skills by using the popular song and rhyme.

Both are HarperCollins Children?s Books first paid applications and are available in the Apple App Store for 99 cents.

Twenty-five percent of the application downloads since their launch last week have come from outside the United States.

?The apps are targeted for parents with pre-school age children, who want to be able to provide high-quality, educationally sound and, most importantly, fun apps for their kids,? Ms. Katz said.

?The apps help parents conveniently keep their kids entertained on the go, while also providing them with fundamental educational experiences such as learning their ABC?s and counting numbers,? she said.

Harping about it
HarperCollins last year partnered with QMcodes to link print and digital by launching its mobile marketing campaign. It allowed readers to directly connect to the publisher via 2D bar codes, mobile sites, social networking, video and SMS (see story).

The campaign was tested with the release of ?L.A. Candy,? ?The Amanda Project? and the paperback release of ?Freakonomics.?

HarperCollins plans to soon release its third iPhone application, Freight Train. The application is based on a children?s picture book by Donald Crews and will be available in English and Spanish.

?We are continuing to expand our content into multiple platforms? apps, mobile, ebooks? and going where our readers are,? Ms. Katz said.

?Specifically we are looking at the teen space as an opportunity and last November we launched InkPop.com, an interactive writing site for teens that combines community publishing, user-generated content and social networking,? she said.

Final Take
Kaitlyn Bonneville, editorial assistant at Mobile Marketer, New York