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Aldiko Hits 15 Million Downloads – Passes Kobo & Nook Apps

sneakThe leading indie ebook reading app on Android hit a new milestone this week.

The developers of Aldiko announced late Friday night that their download stats at Google Play and other Android app stores had reached 15 million, making Aldiko the single most downloaded Android reading app short of the Kindle app.

In fact, if the publicly available download stats in Google play are accurate then Aldiko has actually been downloaded more times than the Kobo or Nook Android apps (I kid you not). Of course, we don’t know how many apps are actually in use, but at this point there’s little reason to think that Aldiko is used less on Android than its brand name competition.

aldiko 15 million downloads banner

The Aldiko app was initially launched in June 2009. At that time the developers split their efforts between developing their app and creating standalone ebook apps for publishers. O’Reilly, for example, dabbled in releasing their ebooks as apps.

About 18 months after the initial launch, Aldiko was relaunched in late 2011 as v2.0. This new version included support for Adobe DE DRM as well as an ebookstore. The developers are working on a v3.0 release at the moment, with even more new features.

Aldiko

Google Play

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Comments


Alexander Inglis September 8, 2013 um 8:10 am

I find it hard to believe that Aldiko is as widely used — actually used — as Kobo or Nook apps. The average user is *mainly* going to source ebooks through one of the stores like Amazon, Kobo, Sony, B&N and hence will download the store app. Both Kobo and Nook have said they have around 15 million customers and you’d think a reasonably high portion of those will have downloaded an app along the way.

fjtorres September 8, 2013 um 10:40 am

"Used" is a pretty broad spectrum.
Aldiko has built-in ties to Feedbooks and other sources of quality PD titles and it has a lot of visibility among Android users. And it supports ADEPT ebooks so it’s a useful reader for customers of indie bookstores as well as Kobo and B&N.
There’s a lot of android users out there so I wouldn’t find it odd if they do have more active users than Nook and Kobo simply because a lot of them are going to be Nook and Kobo, as well as Kindle, customers.
It may not be too many people’s number one reader but it likely is the number 2 or 3 for a lot of them. The same applies to Overdrive, Bluefire, and Coolreader.
There’s no reason why people can’t regularly use more than one reading app and Kindle customers tend to look for a companion epub reader for occasional use.
We’re not talking Highlander, after all…


Hadrien Gardeur September 8, 2013 um 10:24 am

@Alexander

Nook is only aimed at the US market (and also a bit at the UK market) and Kobo is behind Aldiko on the Play Store in almost every market.
Both Nook and Kobo rely mostly on their own devices for their market share, outside of these devices they’re usually fairly weak.
Aldiko is also very popular among users who sideload ebooks and read library books too.

It seems that your definition of "the average user" is very narrow (US centric and "buy" centric).

Play Store rankings takes into account the number of active users too and not just total number of devices, and neither Kobo or Nook are in the (10+ million range).

AppAnnie is very useful to keep track of such things:
http://www.appannie.com/app/android/com.aldiko.android/ranking/#view=ranks&date=2013-09-07
http://www.appannie.com/app/android/bn.ereader/ranking/#view=ranks&date=2013-09-07
http://www.appannie.com/app/android/com.kobobooks.android/ranking/#view=ranks&date=2013-09-07


CJJ September 8, 2013 um 10:53 am

I’ve used the paid version for over a year now and really like it. The last version was a big improvement as it greatly reduced the time rendering book covers in the bookshelf view. Initially it was pretty poor. I would say PDF rendering could still use improvement but I rarely use them.


Keishon September 8, 2013 um 10:59 am

Aldiko is alright but I don’t use it anymore. I am very happy with Mantano Reader.


pidgeon92 September 8, 2013 um 3:25 pm

I installed Aldiko, but I had difficulty with it, and ultimately uninstalled it. I found Moon Reader + more useable, and got the Pro version on a day when they were giving it away for free.

I am going to give Mantano a shot, I’ve been reading a lot of good things about it on MobileRead recently.


Android eBook App Aldiko Hits 20 Million Downloads – The Digital Reader April 22, 2014 um 8:50 am

[…] either Barnes & Noble or Kobo, a detail I noted when Aldiko reached 15 million downloads in September 2013, and they’re not the only indie reading app to best the majors. Moon+ Reader also reports […]


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