Brainshark Announces Android App
Brainshark today launched its Android app, providing an interactive experience for users when they view video presentations on smartphones and tablets.
"We allow the average business person to very quickly and easily create online video presentations and then share them with whomever they like via a Web link then track the viewing behavior," says Andy Zimmerman, vice president of product marketing at Brainshark.
Brainshark's target user is a "marketer or someone in training or sales who is a regular communicator. What's unique about our app strategy is that we provide an enhanced viewing experience for the person watching a presentation on their mobile device," he explains. "It's a highly interactive video experience."
The app's features allow users to do the following:
- view presentation attributes including title, description, length, view count, and author information;
- navigate through presentations using the table of contents, which shows thumbnails, titles, and durations for each slide;
- download related attachments and other documents; and
- respond to interactive polls, surveys, or test questions in presentations.
David Klein, product director at Brainshark, says the Android app took a little more than two months of development. "We were pretty aggressive with the turnaround of this particular app," he says. "It brings the focus of our app to a much higher level. It's pretty exciting."
According to forecasts from Gartner, Android is on track to become the most popular operating system for smartphones worldwide by the end of this year and should reach a share of 49.2 percent of the smartphone market in 2012. "For many companies today, the need to communicate with mobile audiences is a given, but getting recipients to actually access content can be another story," said Bill Pray, research director for content and collaboration at Gartner, in a statement. "In order to be truly effective, content must not only be engaging, but easy to find, view, and share on smartphones and tablets. Making content easily available on the variety of popular mobile operating systems is important, enabling users to conveniently consume presentations and other business content."
Brainshark for Android is now available for users. "It's a free app, so you can use it today whether you are a Brainshark customer or not," Zimmerman explains. "There is no charge for the enhanced experience."
The mobile strategy for Brainshark is pretty well developed," Klein adds. "We continue to invest heavily in mobile enablement."