Presentations are a big part of our daily lives. We have to make and suffer through them at work, events and sometimes even at home. The suffering part can be due to the content itself but very often it is because of the limits of technology.
For instance you might be limited to using Keynote or Powerpoint when you could have used a multitude of other programs to create the slides and movies. If presenting on a big screen – font size might be an issue. Then there is the whole problem of compatibility. Do I have the right USB stick? Can I use my own computer or do I have to use the one provided for me? Will the fonts look the same? Is it a Mac or a Windows machine? Will the clicker work? Oh and one thing that is often missing completely is an ability to make the same presentation to people in different locations, all over the globe, at the same time.
This is where the Oslo based Swipe comes in. When we covered the startup the first time, we mainly focused on two things: the ability to put a presentation into the cloud without worrying about the filetype and share-ability to any device. Unfortunately we did not know enough to explain exactly how it works. We do now.
Basically Swipe’s core principle is that any content can be a “slide” and that anyone should be able to display the presentation from any device to any number of other devices. To do that, you can upload over 15 filetypes to create the presentation, such as: PDF, Keynote, Photoshop, Illustrator, JPG, etc. You then get a link that you can share to any device.
During the presentation, you can control the flow from any device using any network connection. At the same time, viewers will also be able to view the presentation from any device and interact with it. If you use markdown, you can even create great looking and responsive web-presentations.
One great thing that sets them apart, compared to other presentation tools is that they have privacy in-mind and it is the default setting, whereas in many alternatives that would be the premium option.
Today they have announced their launch, so you can check out a sample presentation here and create your own on their site. The company has also secured an undisclosed amount of money from Passion Capital to continue development.
Still, it is a tough market and there are other companies going for it. Just in our region there is Presentation.io, Slidefy, Movenote, Presefy and Screen.io. That is a lot of competition, and sure many of them are focusing on different aspects of the presentation but in the end – they are all going for the same market. Who do you think will come out on top?
