About Us
OUR HISTORY
PageFlip was founded in New York in 2002 to develop, manufacture, and commercialize superior automatic page turning technology for the benefit of musicians and avid readers. Unlike other products on the market, our Bluetooth pedals and mechanical page turner are designed to offer bidirectional hands-free solutions that are reliable, portable, silent, and low-cost.
Prior to starting the company, the PageFlip founders came from disparate backgrounds: occupational therapy and engineering. What brought them together was their shared frustration with what they found in the market. Existing page turning technology performed poorly and was prohibitively expensive. It was simply not possible to find affordable and robust products to assist musicians to play uninterruptedly from standard music books, and eventually from iPad and Android tablets. After much careful design and testing at our facility in New York, several generations of mechanical and Bluetooth page turner prototypes were made to refine our patented technology.
PRODUCT EVOLUTION
PageFlip Lite: The first prototype of our mechanical page turner was introduced at the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) trade show in Anaheim, California, in January 2008. The show, attended by over 85,000 people in the music retail industry, was a great source of valuable feedback and comments. That interaction with customers led us to product refinements that lowered size and noise, while raising reliability. Furthermore, since it does no one any good to have a technologically innovative product lie beyond the financial reach of its customers, we worked with a large contract manufacturer to help lower costs and make the product affordable. The result was demonstrated at NAMM in January 2010. There, the new PageFlip Lite mechanical page turner amazed people with its simplicity, robustness, and affordability.
PageFlip Cicada: To address the explosive growth in eBooks and electronic documents, we launched the PageFlip Cicada Bluetooth pedal at NAMM in January 2011. This is an ideal solution for consumers of digital content who want to enjoy the benefits of hands-free page turning. Having been launched shortly after the introduction of the iPad, the PageFlip Cicada has grown to be wildly popular among musicians around the world. It has been used by professional bands and orchestras, Grammy-award winning musicians, worship groups, and soloists playing prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Sydney Opera House, O2 in London, and orchestra pits on Broadway and London's West End. The Cicada was replaced by our new-and-improved Butterfly pedal in 2016.
PageFlip Firefly: Launched at NAMM in January 2014, the PageFlip Firefly is our premier dual pedal. It offers many great benefits, including illuminated pedals, wireless or wired operation, solid ergonomic construction, and totally silent operation. The PageFlip Firefly is unique among all Bluetooth page turning pedals in that it is programmable. The user can easily assign five pairs of functions (key mappings) to the integrated dual pedals and optional external pedals. This ability to assign one pair of functions to the integrated pedals and another pair of functions to optional external pedals permits the Firefly to serve as a four-pedal system. The PageFlip Firefly represents the best value among all Bluetooth pedals on the market. It continues to be our best seller.
PageFlip Butterfly: Launched in October 2016, the PageFlip Butterfly is a new and improved version of the Cicada pedal. It features added heft, more rugged construction, a 30-minute timeout period, and a totally silent pedal action that mimics the feel of our premium Firefly pedal. Having incorporated all the great user feedback from the PageFlip Cicada, the Butterfly is the successor to the Cicada in PageFlip's product line. Unlike competing pedals with small buttons or thin membrane switches, the PageFlip Butterfly features larger satisfying tactile pedals for demanding musicians. The pedal's heft and anti-skid rubber helps prevent it from sliding on the floor during active use.
PageFlip Dragonfly: Launched at NAMM in January 2017, the PageFlip Dragonfly is a wireless 4-pedal controller. It shares all the great features of the Firefly in a compact quad pedal design: illuminated pedals, programmable pedal modes, added heft, rugged construction, a 30-minute timeout period, and a totally silent pedal action. Inspired by the layout of black and white keys on the piano, the Dragonfly features a revolutionary design with two smaller pedals set back atop two larger pedals. Tap the larger pedals to trigger the more common tasks. Stomp on the smaller pedals to initiate secondary tasks. This is ideal for musicians who want hands-free control of four app actions with the tap of the foot. For instance, turn pages in either direction with the two larger pedals, and navigate among songs in a set list using the two smaller pedals. The options are endless.
We are sure that you will be amazed by the new opportunities in hands-free page turning that our products make available. Be prepared to discover the benefits of automatic hands-free page turning and wireless foot-activated control of apps!