Tellme’s co-founder and entrepreneur can add “serial” to his title now that his latest company, Flipboard, successfully launched its eponymous product and initial set of services. The Flipboard app for iPad is a dynamic mashup of newsfeeds and social media features. Users are greeted with a front page along with the invitation to “flip” through to a “Contents” page that displays multiple frames of “flippable” content: including rapid access to feeds from Facebook and Twitter as well as multiple categories of curated content with names like FlipStyle, FlipPhotos, FlipBusiness (you get the idea).

In addition to the sui generis Flip(fill-in-the-blank) there are some preselected “winners” like GigaOm, The Onion, All Things D, The Economist and a few others that streamline access to content from popular online news sources and social media. Once selected, the source can be navigated by using intuitive finger gestures (flipping). There are also icons on each story that users can touch to “like” that story or to “reply” to the original post with a comment. It’s that simple… Almost.

We characterized the launch as a “success” only if you measure success by “overcapacity” (a variant of Apple/AT&T’s formula for demand creation). Featured prominently on the “Contents” page of Flipboard are the obligatory links to Facebook and Twitter. However, flipping to those links initiates a “pop-up” message thanking the customer for downloading the (free) app and admitting that “we are currently limiting the rate at which we are accepting new Facebook and Twitter connections” The good news is that they believe it will take only “several hours” to “deploy new server infrastructure”. This makes it a shorter wait than the line at the Apple store on the first day of iPhone4 sales.

As for the business side of Flipboard. The company has reportedly closed a $10+ million Series A round from Kleiner Perkins. As for monetization strategies, the company is admittedly “early stage” but, with leading branded content providers showing such deep interest on the new user interface and navigation technique, advertisers will not be far behind; nor will ideas for subscription services.

Categories: Articles

Tags: Mobile Platforms, Recombinant Communications, Mashups