News & Updates

AppDirect, Wacom, and the Internet of Ink

By Richard Dufty / January 6, 2016

The cloud is connecting us in surprising ways. Smart cars, smart pet collars—you name it, you can probably connect it, or connect to it, online.

Today, AppDirect is announcing a partnership to power a unique sector in this rapidly evolving market: the Internet of Ink. A term coined by Wacom—the global leader in the interactive pen tablet and display market and AppDirect’s newest customer—the Internet of Ink is a collection of cloud-based creativity and digital stationery tools that make it easier than ever to create and share designs.

AppDirect is powering the Wacom Marketplace, a one-stop shop for these solutions that Wacom is previewing today at CES in Las Vegas. To start, the marketplace will include Wacom’s applications, including Bamboo Spark, which allows users to create notes and sketches on paper and then digitalizes and saves them in the cloud. Going forward, the Wacom Marketplace will include a number of third-party apps for use on Wacom tablets.

Working with Wacom is a big milestone for us, not only because it expands our footprint in Asia, but also because Wacom is one of our first partnerships with a consumer hardware manufacturer. Wacom has 88 percent of the market share for pen tablets worldwide, a number that jumps to more than 94 percent in Japan. The Wacom Marketplace demonstrates the true versatility of our technology, as well as our team’s ability to empower and support global leaders across a range of sectors as they make cloud service commerce a key part of their go-to-market strategies.

The team at AppDirect has been particularly impressed by Wacom’s vision and commitment to applying digital technologies to creativity. We are excited to partner with the company to help create an ecosystem of these solutions and support its strategy surrounding smart devices and the Internet of Things. To learn more about the partnership, you can read our press release here. We can’t wait to see what “Internet of Name-Your-Innovation” we can help power next.

Richard Dufty is VP of Worldwide Sales, Customer Success, and Alliances at AppDirect.