New chapter for m-book space as two literary giants launch fresh intitiatives.
Penguin Group (USA) announced a new digital publishing program, Penguin 2.0, which enabled the launch of Penguin Mobile. This will develop content for iPhone and other web-enabled mobile devices. The plan is to roll this out, along with social networking and community functionality, over the next 12 months.The iPhone application is already available for free from the iTunes app store. In its first ten days of availability, over 1,700 readers downloaded it. The app lets users read and comment on the Penguin blog, listen to the podcast, and browse new titles.
Meanwhile Random House and Ballantine will make full-length books available for free on iPhone through the Lexcycle Stanza e-book reader. It's estimated that there are 500,000 Stanza users.
Advertisement
