HP Pivot a finalist in 2011 Digital Magazine Awards 13

When launching the App Catalog for the TouchPad, HP made an interesting move by bringing Pivot to the table. If you own a TouchPad, you've likely browsed through at least one issue of the App Catalog magazine that is Pivot. In addition to exploring the apps available for the TouchPad, Pivot also examines digital life and culture and how it works in concert with the real world. It's not necessarily the most exciting thing to come out of HP, but it’s still a creative solution to the problem of app discovery.

Creative enough, it would seem, that Pivot has been named a finalist in the Technology & Gadget Magazine of the Year category of the 2011 Digital Magazine Awards. Pivot, which is put together in 9 different global editions for HP by The Science Project, is going up against some strong competition. There’s Phonica Magazine UK, T3 and Tap! by Future Publishing, Condé Nast’s been-around-forever Wired, and Engadget Distro. The “technology & gadget magazine” category is a new one for the DMAs this year. Despite the multi-year history of the digital magazine, it’s taken a while for tech publications to jump on board. In the category, Pivot ant Tap! distinguish themselves as being dedicated to a specific mobile platform’s apps (Tap! is all about iPhone and iPad).

Of course, Pivot exists to help prop up the App Catalog, while Tap! is a third-party effort taking advantage of the rabbit-style proliferation of the iOS App Store. Either way, Pivot’s place as a finalist in the Digitial Magazine Awards shows that the medium is finally starting to come of age and that HP's effort hasn't gone entirely unnoticed. Also of note is that every magazine in the finalists is one specifically crafted for digital devices (the content in Wired is the same across both the physical and digital mediums, but the presentation differs) - none of the static magazine papers like you get with Zinio.