The note-taking app company, scared of remaining stationary in such a high-tech world, has turned its attention to physical products, and in particular notebooks, pens, paper and even Post-its with the launch of its new Evernote Market portal.
Part of its overall vision to remain a relevant business for the next 100 years, the company has forged partnerships with a number of companies to create complementary products, chief among them, 3M, breathing new digital life into the humble Post-it note in the process.
Now, when you jot something on a post-it, you can snap a photo of it via the Evernote iPhone app and the camera will not only capture the note but will automatically file it based on the Post-it’s color. But as well as the new features to the app, the partnership brings a newly designed set of Post-it trays so that a user can always grab the right size and right color sticky for the note at hand.
Evernote has also extended its partnership with artisan notebook maker Moleskine to offer a wider range of Evernote-compatible books, pages in which are tagged and can be uploaded to an Evernote app via a smartphone or tablet camera.
And while the existing notebooks have proved a huge hit – the company claims to have sold “hundreds of thousands” since they launched last year, some of the other products on offer show that Evernote wants to be a lifestyle brand as much as a productivity tool. Chief among these are partnerships with Japanese company Abrasus to produce a range of Evernote-branded bags and wallets and a similar arrangement with French designer Cote&Ciel for special backpacks and tablet sleeves.
The biggest ticket item on the newly launched Evernote Market is a scanner that scans documents directly to an Evernote account. Developed in conjunction with Fujitsu, it costs $495.
Speaking to All Things D, the company’s CEO Phil Libin joked that Evernote wanted to be a fashion brand but also highlighted that the realization that technology will probably never entirely replace certain ways of doing things is the motivation behind the market. There are lots of uses for paper that apps like Evernote will never replace and can only support. “We realized that paperless is not the goal. Great experience is the goal. We want to eliminate the stupid uses of paper,” he said.
