All Your Magazines in One App! Papergarden

With the launch of the Galaxy Tab S, Samsung introduced its first digital interactive magazine service, Papergarden. We’ve recommended it before, because it makes the best out of the WQXGA Super AMOLED display of the Galaxy Tab S.

However, as some of you may know, Papergarden is Samsung’s first attempt in promoting a new type of magazine service. Therefore, with the help from people who are behind the production and marketing of Papergarden, we at Samsung Tomorrow felt compelled to dig deeper into what Papergarden is all about.

The “One-stop-shop” Concept

Samsung market research suggested that magazine contents and services were in relatively high demand by tablet users. The product planners of Papergarden actually observed many tablet users reading news and articles from various magazines on their way to and from work and many of them found it inconvenient to open separate magazine applications every time they had to download a magazine they wanted to read.

Since interactive multimedia features of the magazines made users concentrate more on the contents, Samsung came up with the idea of providing a digital interactive magazine service that allows users to buy, read, and manage their favorite magazines all in one place. This Samsung calls it the “One-stop-shop” concept.

Moreover, for quicker and easier access to the magazines, Papergarden features ‘My Library’. This allows users to instantly view all the magazines they have purchased and downloaded from the ‘Store’. Also, users can easily go back to the ‘Store’ and browse for more magazines they are interested in. Thus, thanks to the simple, streamlined user experience, users can easily access the magazines they enjoy reading.

Magazines perfectly optimized for Samsung tablet screen

Samsung wanted to make sure that Papergarden offers an enjoyable and immersive reading experience to its users. Therefore, it was important to present the contents that are perfectly optimized and exactly fit the screen size of the Galaxy Tab S.

However, the process of partnering with magazine publishers and acquiring contents in 16:10 ratio, the aspect ratio of the Galaxy Tab S, was not easy. Nevertheless, with the help and collaboration of many magazine publishers, Papergarden was able to bring high quality top-brand magazines to the Galaxy Tab S.

As the Papergarden’s magazines are perfectly optimized to fit the Galaxy Tab S, users can now enjoy high-resolution images with the best color expression on the tablet’s Super AMOLED display. Users will feel like they are reading a real magazine. Also, they will be immersed in the magazine with high quality video clips, multimedia, and dynamic interactive touch effects, increasing the interaction and concentration of the users.

Papergarden is, of course, localized

Obviously, the preference for magazines differs from each country. Hence, Samsung tried to offer magazines that cater to a variety of tastes through Papergarden. Samsung contacted local top magazine publishers to provide magazines that are not only mostly read and liked by local users, but also ones that are highly interactive.

For instance, the U.S. Papergarden service offers Road & Track, Food Network Magazine, US Weekly, and so on. In terms of U.K, top local brands like Empire, Wired UK, Top Gear Magazine are just a few to name in Papergarden’s catalogue, and for Brazil users, there is Época, Autoesporte, Galileu, and so many more. Also, all users can enjoy globally well-known brands such as GQ, Glamour, and National Geographic in its localized versions for each country.

At the moment, Papergarden is available only in U.S., U.K., Brazil, and Korea. But, plans are in place for the digital interactive magazine service to be provided to more tablet users in other countries.

Overall, Papergarden has reached out to tablet users by offering a seamless user experience, providing top-brand interactive magazines across a variety of categories, including fashion, health, sports, lifestyle and more. Samsung Papergarden team plans to improve Papergarden to make it a better service. Users can now find Papergarden not just on the Galaxy Tab S, but also on Galaxy Tab Pro, Galaxy Note Pro, Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition devices as well.. Also, it is said that more devices will be supported in the long run.

Even though, Papergarden was Samsung’s first attempt in promoting a new type of magazine service, it offers a very intuitive, high quality user experience and localized service, which is specifically optimized for Samsung tablet devices. Therefore, if you are a Samsung tablet user and like to read magazines, Papergarden is definitely a service we recommend for you.

Epilogue: How Samsung’s first digital interactive magazine service got its name

Samsung marketing planners tried to think of the best possible brand name to represent Samsung’s first digital interactive magazine service. They wanted the name that is not only intuitive, but also can represent a platform of digital magazines and create an emotional connection with users. Hence, they named the digital interactive magazine service “Papergarden.” Here, ‘Paper’ is the medium through which people share their experience and information that refers to the magazines and ‘Garden’, symbolizes a place that allows users to take a break from their busy lives.

*All functionality features, specifications, and other product information provided in this document including, but not limited to, the benefits, design, pricing, components, performance, availability, and capabilities of the product are subject to change without notice or obligation.