Random House gets into mobiles
p2pnet.net News:- US book publisher Random House says it’s bought a significant minority stake in VOCEL, a firm that publishes applications for mobile phones.
“VOCEL’s patent-pending push technology sends interactive messages to your mobile phone,” it says on its website. “Whether you are preparing for a college entrance exam, learning a new language, or keeping track of your health, your mobile phone can now be your best asset.”
Random House says it’s also reached licensing arrangements with VOCEL to, “provide cell phone access to the publisher’s Living Language foreign-language study programs and Prima Games video game strategy guides,” says the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Cell phone texts have already caught on in Germany, South Korea and Japan, where a cell-novel became so popular that it was turned into a feature film, "Deep Love," the story points out.
Other publishers had mixed reactions, says the story, adding:
“Penguin Group USA and St. Martin’s Press said they had no current plans to invest in phone texts. But Oxford University Press said it was interested, and Simon & Schuster ‘has been testing the waters,’ according to spokesman Adam Rothberg. ‘We’re talking to all kinds of people about it,’ he said. ‘It’s obviously one of the next frontiers in the e-book world’."
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See:-
cell phone access – Random House to enter phone text market, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 18, 2005
