B&N Launches Retail Site for Mobile Users

Source: publisherweekly Barnes & Noble has launched a retail destination designed specifically for those with BlackBerries and smartphones. The new site, www.bn.com/mobile, caters to those who want to order books and other products from their mobile devices

“Our goal is to serve our customers from wherever they are, in a multitude of platforms,” said Marie J. Toulantis, chief executive officer of Barnes & Noble.com. In addition to search capabilities, B&N Mobile also allows customers to locate stores and events, check inventory and track orders. "

Houghton Hits Cell Phones

Source: PublishersWeekly Article
Houghton Mifflin has signed with Mobifusion to deliver electronic versions of its books to cell phones. Joining the ranks of publishers like Avalon and Simon & Schuster—which already work with the tech company—Houghton will work with Mobifusion to deliver mobile-friendly versions of its books with some, according to a Houghton rep, featuring "added functionality." Initially the house will focus on generating mobile versions of its reference and children's titles.

Motricity's eReader.com Launches Over-The-Air Delivery to Simplify eBook Delivery

The new eReader Pro for Windows Mobile technology will be offered for free by the company and Motricity has said they will continue to invest in its innovative eReader Technology and will support OTA delivery on additional operating systems in the near future. Alex Bloom (News - Alert), general manager of Motricity’s Smartphone operations said in a press release, “We are taking innovative steps to raise consumer adoption of eBooks by simplifying the customer’s experience. Currently, eBook consumers have to buy the book, download it onto a PC, connect the mobile to the PC and transfer the data. We’ve already seen through our experience with games, ringtones and other content types that making transactions simpler and more immediate helps increase consumer adoption. Reading eBooks is a new event for most consumers and we want to ensure that they have an easy and pleasurable initial experience. Over the years, we’ve seen that once someone tries an eBook, they are very likely to enjoy it and eBooks become part of their lifestyle while traveling, commuting and other on-the-go activities."

http://www.tmcnet.com/wifirevolution/articles/13175-motricitys-ereadercom-launches-over-the-air-delivery-simplify.htm

Sony BMG: “We Are Projecting Up To 40% Of US Sales Coming From Digital in 2008”

Digital Music Forum West 2007 - Many of the Thursday morning panels acknowledged the fact that, in this digital age, people are consuming more music than ever. They are just not paying for it. Digital revenues are still not making up for the drop in sales of CDs. However, many panelists agreed that the industry is now finally moving in the right way by dropping DRM-restrictions, moving to ad-supported models and variable pricing in order to find individual price-points that works for everyone.

Thomas Hesse, President, Global Digital Business & U. S. Sales, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, who was the morning keynote mentioned that Sony BMG are at 30% digital sales in the US this year and projecting up to 40% next year. As far as new ideas for monetizing music, prepaid download cards and gift cards can, to some extent, replace physical CDs at retail, especially when combined with free location-specific WiFi downloads like Starbucks and iTunes are going to launch.

Other opportunity that were mentioned by many of the morning panelists for the music industry is on the mobile platform and in-games.“One billion cell phones will be replaced this year and 95% of new cell phones can play music. That is a huge opportunity”, said Dave Jaworski, CEO of Pasalong Networks. Thomas Hesse projected around 17% of Sony BMG sales coming from digital for this year on a global scale, but mentioned that he thinks that it should be a much bigger business, especially when it comes to mobile offerings. Article

New Verizon phones to compete with the iPhone

Verizon Wireless on Wednesday introduced three new handset models, including the LG Voyager, a touch-screen phone the company is positioning as a competitor to Apple's iPhone.Unlike the iPhone, the Voyager includes a traditional keypad, and offers a faster mobile Internet connection than does the iPhone on AT&T's network."We think it'll be the best phone ... this year. It will kill the iPhone," Verizon Wireless chief marketing officer Mike Lanman told Reuters.The Voyager also features a 2-megapixel camera and up to 8GB of memory.Verizon is expected to sell the Voyager for between $300 and $400 when it launches before the end of November. Article

SpiralFrog Licenses Tracks for Ad-Supported Music Service

SpiralFrog, the developer of a free, ad-supported music download service, announced on Tuesday that it has signed a licensing deal with independent digital music distributor IODA. IODA's nearly 1 million-track catalog will be added to existing music from SpiralFrog partners including Universal Music Group, Universal Music Publishing, EMI Music Publishing, BMI and KOCH Records. Article

Mobile Music Provider gets new funding

Groove Mobile, a provider of mobile music services, announced on Wednesday that it has raised an additional $6 million in funding from ORIX Venture Finance. Since launching its service in 2004, Groove Mobile said it has completed 35 million transactions, many of which consist of full-track song downloads to mobile phones, and in July alone enabled nearly three million downloads. The company powers mobile music services for mobile carriers including 3 UK, Vodafone and Sprint. Article

Nokia to Adopt Microsoft's PlayReady DRM for Mobile Entertainment

The technology will allow users to share protected pieces of content like music, games, or videos between PCs and other devices. Nokia is expected to launch a online music and mobile content store, a rival to Apple iTunes, in the coming months, using technology gained in last year's acquisition of Loudeye. Article