Penguin and Random House Go Mobile

Two major book publishers, Penguin Group and Random House, announced mobile phone initiatives Monday “as a worried industry increasingly banks on a digital future,” according to the Associated Press.

- The Penguin Group launched Penguin 2.0, a service with two parts: Penguin Personalized, which lets customers add personal dedication pages to digital books, and Penguin Mobile, which allows readers to receive text on Web-enabled cell phones.

- The Random House Publishing Group plans to digitize some books for free on the iPhone, including those by Alan Furst and Arthur Phillips; the eBooks will display through Lexcycle’s Stanza reader.

The Penguin Group and Random House join HarperCollins, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Simon & Schuster as publishers with active mobile initiatives.

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