Amos Publishing has released the first two Scott catalogs for the iPad etc. In addition to the US Specialized is, incredibly, the 2012 Classic Catalogue. The app itself is free. The cost for the Classic Catalog is $90 which you can buy in three parts at $29.99 each. I did a quick and dirty review of the app on the Virtual Stamp Club thread. You can also find some nice screen shots as well as more discussion on Stamp Community.
According to Charles Snee on Stamp Boards, "The six 2013 Standard catalogue volumes will be available through the app at the same time the print versions go on sale."
Here is a link to the Scott Catalogue app at the Apple App Store:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scott-catalog/id484086693
Screen shot is from the iPhone version.
UPDATE 3/6/12: The March 5th Linn's has a one page article on the Scott Catalogue Mobile (the app's official name) by one of Scott's catalog editors, David Akin. He gives some interesting technical data (resolution, font size) and some explanations for how the catalog has been partioned for purchase and downloading. Amos Publishing welcomes comments about this product which may be sent from within the app or by email to Cuserv@amospress with SCM in the subject line.
UPDATE 3/20/12: Chad Snee on PhilaMercury writes that Scott is working on improving the search function for the next version and perhaps--be still my heart--a check list function.
2 comments:
I think the whole idea of digitizing catalogues is a very interesting one, but if they end up being just screen views of paper catalogues I'm not sure what the point really is? A digitized book you can read. I get that. I prefer paper, but I get that. Do you read a catalog? Mostly you don't. You use it to identify stamps, to record purchases of stamps, to check prices and so forth. It's not just a regular book. So shouldn't a catalog be more interactive? I think the successful ones will be.
I suggest that Scott find a way to do a number of thinks with the digital catalogs so that collectors will want to use them. If some of these become standard, they might become almost an essential of the hobby.
1. Make the images of stamps expandable so collectors can enjoy what they look like, of course, but also so they can check details.
2. Make catalogs reorganizable. If I want to move my "C" airmails into the years they were issued along with the other regular issues and commemoratives, I should be able to do that. Since that's the way I collect -- by year (or by series if a coherent group of stamps is issued over a period of years) -- I ought to be able to reorganize the listing, leaving the catalog number intact.
3. Allow users to record if they own the stamp and in what condition. Make the catalog into a checklist.
4. It might even be possible for Scott to allow purchasers to update catalogs online by purchasing the latest pricing and other changes the way we update other computer programs.
And so on. But to issue a catalog for an Ipad as if it were simply another book seems to waste most of the most useful benefits of this format. If I have to choose between a book on paper or a book on screen, I'll likely stick with paper because I'm comfortable with it. If the onscreen catalog offers a lot more flexibility, though, that would be a very different story.
Drew, I would love to have an app like you describe. But in the meantime I still have a need for the catalog in ebook format. I would estimate that I use my print Classic perhaps 5% of the time and the other 95% split between consulting the 2007 version pdfs on either my laptop or iPad.
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