Earlier this month, Random House and Penguin Group said they were getting ready to release digital editions of their best-selling books on the iPhone and iPod Touch, and now a host of other publishers are following their lead. Committed publishers also include Houghton Mifflin, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette with more to come, reports Wired. In the center of the action is ScrollMotion, a New York-based mobile app developer, which will start launching books on Monday through its iPhone application. The company will release titles such as Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight,” Philip Pullman’s “The Golden Compass”  and a number of others by Christopher Paolini, Brad Meltzer and Scott Westerfeld.

SEE ALSO: Penguin Group And Random House Expand Mobile Book Plans

Wired writes that having big book publishers on board, like these, squarely puts iTunes in the digital book business, and makes the iPhone a viable competitor against Amazon’s Kindle and the Sony (NYSE: SNE) E-Reader. Especially since ScrollMotion is using Apple’s DRM. The one difference perhaps is that the Kindle is truly mobile since it uses Sprint’s wireless network, whereas ScrollMotion users will be able to purchase additional books over Wi-Fi when available.

Photo Credit: Ian Wilson