Penguin Group And Random House Expand Mobile Book Plans

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Penguin Group And Random House Expand Mobile Book Plans

Penguin Group USA and Random House are both cementing plans to bring more of their books to the iPhone and other mobile devices, the AP reports. The two publishers announced new mobile initiatives today as the book industry sets its sights on increasing digital sales in a worsening economy. Penguin 2.0 enables customers to add personal dedication pages to digital books and Penguin Mobile allows readers to receive text on cellphones. Random House said it’s releasing some of its books for free on the iPhone and making them available through Lexcycle’s Stanza reader. These latest moves come on the heels of growing momentum for mobile book publishing. UK content provider GoSpoken has launched an audiobook service with Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) and has brought many of the country’s biggest publishers on board, including HarperCollins, Random House and Penguin. In addition, Harper Collins created a specific site that gave users excerpts from select books, right after the first iPhone was released. At last count, there was 277 books for sale on Apple’s App Store.