Paper for iPad tops 1.5m downloads, 7m pages in two weeks
updated 01:05 pm EDT, Thu April 12, 2012
Paper for iPad gets record interest early on
Fiftythree sent word late Wednesday that its Paper app for the iPad (App Store) has crossed the 1.5 million download mark in its first two weeks. The same interval saw a total of seven million pages created at the same time, suggesting that every user made at least one page. It's not clear how many had paid for extra drawing tools beyond what's free.
The app is superficially simple, but has earned most of its attention through its emphasis on recreating the effects of real drawing, such as the 'wick' of a pen or the damp look of a watercolor brush. Since launch, the developers have already added a few common requests, such as saving drawings to the iPad's camera roll or customizing Twitter sharing messages.
Fiftythree is the offshoot of the Microsoft Courier team, which was shut down by Microsoft after the Courier and its other experimental projects were turned down. Although it's unclear how successful the Paper team has been, its narrow focus and in-app revenue model have underscored the contrast with the Courier, which had yet to become a physical prototype before Microsoft's habitual aversion to non-Windows software doomed the project.
No mention has been made so far of bringing Paper to Android, Windows 8, or other platforms.
