Problem statement
There are plenty of offline reading solutions available, however, PDF reading over various portable devices has still been painful. Imagine reading a pdf on mobile where you have to continuously scroll left and right and also up and down while just reading a single page. In the age of kindle and some fantastic book readers who provide smart features of on the fly dictionary and night mode reading to ease reading, PDF reading has still not taken up.
Why pocket
Pocket is one application which I use regularly and has done a great job in making reading list easily accessible at your convenience and time.
Pocket however has not expanded so widely in terms of the overall user base of around 30 million.
For pocket to expand its reach it will have to introduce a feature which will help new customer acquisition.
How would the feature work
- Upload PDF or click pocket on the browser add on
The starting point for the user to upload the pdf through a dedicated button.
Pocket has been extensively used through browser add ons, hence the upload journey could also start while user hits the add to pocket plugin on browser.
- PDF upload option
On the upload pdf option, user would be landing on the upload pdf page. Browse the required pdf and upload the same
In case of starting through browser plugin, pdf shall be selected automatically and uploaded - Scan through the pdf, look for content (two column layout / pictures / graphs
The most important step of the upload function would be scan the data appropriately and display it in correct order while retaining the format
Algorithm will have to scan through the content to ensure the sequence is maintained.
Key area to manage would be the graphs and pictures which will need to be scaled in such way that it retains all info while also showing the content in an elegant way
- Open / preview the content with option to ask read now or read later
Once the algorithm scans through the user can preview the document in pocket mode, while having the option to read it instantly or read it later - PDFs ready to read
User would prefer to see the list of all the PDFs scanned and readily available for reading.
How would pocket benefit
- Pocket would be able to expand on its overall customer base
- Becomes one stop shop for all types of read it later
- Enhance overall stickiness of the tool
Future proposals
Charge premium for the feature at later point (though current charges are high as per several users)
Become one stop shop for all non book short to medium attention reading
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