Would you buy an e-book from an airport, museum or hotel? Big five publisher Simon & Schuster hopes you will.
Simon & Schuster has partnered with mobile content delivery service Foli to offer customers complimentary access to a selection of full-text e-books in airports, museums and hotels in the United States.
Foli specializes in Geo-targeting, which basically allows the delivery of a single digital e-Book, or group of titles, to a specific geographic location. In order to access the e-books in the program you need to download the official Foli app for Android or iOS.
If you visit the National Air & Space Museum a free digital edition entitledd “The Wright Brothers” will be available to read for free. You have three days from visiting the venue to read it, then you have to buy it. S&S has also ironed out agreements with a number of airport lounges for another 18 titles.
Will customers buy single editions on their smartphone or tablet? Obviously you will not easily be able to load it on your Kobo or Nook and these DRM e-books are not compatible with the Kindle.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
