Book Publishers Put Faith In Mobile Apps, Partnerships

imageTwo of the UK’s leading book publishers are putting their faith in mobile technology to drive digital sales: Random House today launches a paid-for iPhone app through Apple’s app store while Penguin is offering thousands of titles to mobile users on a paid-for basis…

Random House: Coming days after Bertelsmann-owned RH launched a social network for book lovers, its iPhone and iPod Touch app (pictured) offers just six titles for a hefty £7.49 price tag. But the company adds that two titles including Friends Like These by Danny Wallace comes with images, audio and video and more titles are to be added in coming months. The app was developed in partnership with RH’s German division. The company has already made some books available for free to iPhone users via the Stanza app.

Penguin: Some books from Penguin are already available to mobile users, but the company has cemented a deal with mobile e-book developer Mobcast to offer more than 2,000 text and audio titles to users via GoSpoken.com over any network. A GoSpoken.com app was launched on the BlackBerry app store in April and it is also selling titles on Nokia’s new Ovi app store.

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