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I should probably begin with why we created Zen Viewer in the first place…

My ritual after I power up a new computer, tablet or phone for the first time, is to promptly transfer of all my content to the new device. After all, it’s not truly yours, until all of your stuff is on it. For my iPad, some of that content meant all of my user manual & guides for the various gadgets I own. Storing them on the iPad meant I was no longer tethered to a computer when trying to come up with a tech solution while on the other side of the house. But there was one issue when dealing with PDFs on day one of the iPad launch…

All the file readers that were available on the Apple App store lacked something. Either they looked okay and functioned poorly or they functioned okay and looked like crap. There’s nothing worse than looking at the stunning industrial design of the Apple iPad and using a sub-standard app. It dilutes the entire experience for me.

So I emailed the company who created the “best” of what the App store offered and made a proposal…

The Skins Factory would redesign the user interface and interaction elements of their app and in exchange, they would charge a dollar more on top of what they were all ready charging and that would cover our compensation. My proposal meant the other company would have no out-of-pocket expense, lose zero revenue in the process and in return, would now have an app that not only functioned well, but looked and acted exceptionally. I was also planning on discussing with them the possibility of adding themes.

For iOS apps, themes offer something for both the end-user and developer. For the user, themes give the user a chance to customize the experience by keeping it “fresh”. For developers, it offers us a chance to not only generate goodwill by offering free themes, but also to generate additional revenue with premium ones. We offer our Zen Viewer users 5 color variants besides the default theme for free and an additional 6 premium themes for purchase. We’ll be releasing more themes in the weeks and months to come.

Shortly after I sent my proposal I received a response. They inquired about the costs to redesign their app, but dismissed the profit-sharing idea. I wasn’t looking for a “work-for-hire” deal, I wanted The Skins Factory to take an active part in the ongoing development of an app. My response was “Thanks, we’ll build our own”. And so we did.

Zen Viewer took one year to develop from start to acceptance into the Apple Store. So why did it take so long? The simple answer is Zen Viewer is an extremely complicated app. Hachisoft, the code developers for Zen Viewer, basically created a Windows Explorer-type folder system from scratch, while making sure all the viewers functioned well beyond the status quo. I think Zen Viewer is going to excite users and show them that you don’t have to settle for function over form – that both can exist in harmony.

We have a lot of plans for Zen Viewer. So stay tuned…