The Museum of Modern Art has released MoMA Books, an iPad app that features a selection of five e-books from the MoMA publications department, and that will also allow users to link to the MoMa.org site to buy print titles and even MoMA admission tickets. The MoMA Books app lets readers see original layout of print titles and also connects them to the MoMA online store.
The MoMA Books app is a free download available only for the iPad; the five launch titles are being offered at prices below that of the print edition. Initial titles are Atget $60.00 print ($24.99 iPad); Contemporary Chinese Art $40.00 print ($19.99 iPad); Modern Women $65.00 print ($49.99 iPad; and $19.99 iPad subsections); Objects of Design $39.95 print ($19.99 iPad); and Odilon Redon $55.00 print ($39.99 iPad).
MoMA publications department spokespeson Hannah Kim said the app was programmed by the Coderie, an outside app developer; while being designed in-house at MoMA and overseen by Marc Sapir, production director in the department of publications. Kim said that while many of MoMA’s publications are available for purchase as PDFs through the online MoMA store, the MoMA Books app is designed with its own in-app reader and preserves the books’ lavish layout and high resolution images. Purchases are made through the Apple in-app purchasing system but the app will also allow users to link to MoMA.org and see the MoMA exhibition schedule, purchase exhibition tickets and review the collection and more.
More publications will added in the coming months, Kim said, as the publications department is able to get clearances and permissions for the high number of images MoMA books require.
Christopher Hudson, publisher of the MoMA publications department, said that pricing was given a lot of consideration as well. “With e-book prices all over the map at the moment, we’re setting our prices somewhere between the extremes of the ranges,” he said. “We are considering variables such as the in-print and out-of-print status and the newness and age of the titles involved. It remains very much in the early stages for us, but we are excited to be tackling it."
