Evernote, the application that allows users tocapture almost any digital information and access it from any of theirdevices, will launch a new version of its app for Android phones onMonday.
The software will be available from 9am Eastern Time and marks a majorupgrade from the current version.
“Evernote 2.0 for Android is the most advanced version of Evernote we’veever released on any mobile device,” said Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote.
“It’s completely redesigned with many new features, every aspect of theapp has been improved,” he said. “It’s faster, it’s more attractive,it’s more powerful, it runs on a very wide variety of Android devicesand it integrates better with many phone services.”
Among improvements to the software is integration with Google search inthe Android handset or tablet, so Evernote results will be integratedwith the Google results. Multiple attachments can be added to a singlenote and documents can be clipped from the browser of albumapplications.
“Probably the biggest feature for premium users is offline notebooks,”said Libin referring to Evernote’s US$5 per month premium service.
“That was the most requested feature on Android,” he said. “Wepreviously had it only on iPhone and everyone on Android wanted this. Soyou can synchronize your notebooks locally and it makes it much, muchfaster if you don’t have network access.”
Libin was speaking on the sidelines of a Tokyo news conference where heannounced the software will be installed on all Android smartphones soldby NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s top cellular carrier. Additionally, all customersof DoCoMo that have an Android phone or buy one before May 2011 will geta one-year upgrade to Evernote professional at no charge.
The deal is the first for Evernote with a major carrier.
“We kind of ignored carriers for the first couple of years, especiallythe big ones in the U.S. and Europe just because it took such a longtime to talk to them and get anything done, and conventional wisdom wasthe carriers don’t really do anything with small companies,” he said.
Now the deal with DoCoMo has been finalized, Libin hinted more might beon the way.
“We’re very encouraged now and perhaps we’ll go back and pursue deals inother countries,” he said.
Evernote currently has around 5 million users.
NTT DoCoMo’s venture capital arm, DoCoMo Capital, was an early investorin Evernote. In mid-October the company announced it had received afurther investment of US$20 million from Sequoia Capital.
That money will be ploughed back into the software as the company seeksto expand its footprint and add Evernote software for a wider group ofdevices, said Libin.
“In particular, we’re going to be stressing sharing and collaboration sowe have several releases coming out that let you do a much better job ofletting you share your thoughts and memories,” said Libin “We’re doing alot with editing, mark-up and annotation.”
