Scribd, the largest social publishing company in the world, today launched two major new products designed to simplify mobile reading. The send-to-device reading feature is now live on over 10 million Scribd documents, enabling consumers to send reading material to their e-reader or smartphone of choice, including the Kindle, nook, iPhone and Android-powered phones. Scribd is also making public a series of APIs -- the Scribd Open content Platform for E-Readers and mobile Devices (SOPED) -- which gives device companies the ability to more deeply integrate Scribd's search, social and other functionality into their devices. Companies that have already signed on for SOPED include Interead and Onyx International.
Mobile Reading Marketplace

"Scribd is in a perfect position to become the hub for mobile reading, the place where content creators come to easily publish their works and build a readership and where consumers come to find what they want to read on whatever device they want," said Trip Adler, Scribd CEO and co-founder. "Today's launch of our send-to-device feature and mobile API represents a major step forward in our strategy to provide open access to Scribd content. We look forward to giving consumers even more mobile reading options in the coming weeks and months."

The send-to-device feature enables consumers to send millions of free and for-purchase, DRM-free Scribd documents, including books and chapters from major publishers like O'Reilly Media and Lonely Planet, to well-known e-readers such as Amazon's Kindle, the Sony Reader? and Barnes and Noble's nook as well as newer entrants in the e-reader market such as the Entourage eDGE, Interead COOL-ER reader, Onyx International Boox, IREX Digital Reader, ETACO jetBook, Astek EZ Reader and Foxit eSlick Reader. Scribd's new send-to-device feature will also work on billions of mobile phones, including Android, iPhone, BlackBerry?, Palm?, and Windows Mobile?-powered smartphones.

"The more content we can provide our customers the more useful our e-readers will become," said David Donovan, vice president business development at IREX, which sells its e-readers at Best Buy and includes Verizon wireless service. "With Scribd, our users get no-hassle access to an amazing library of entertaining and informative content -- from research to recipes -- they can use everyday."

The Future of Mobile Reading

Starting in March, Scribd will start rolling out a series of mobile applications for the Android and iPhone operating systems, among others. Another important element in the Scribd mobile strategy, these applications will provide Scribd users with a richer search, browsing and social experience directly from select devices that support third-party apps. To help ensure the best possible mobile reading experience, Scribd also plans to make PDF documents available in the EPUB format. EPUB is the open standard for publishing e-books, magazines, newspapers and other content and is designed to optimize text display for mobile devices.

"Reading applications on smartphones are an important component of publishers' digital strategy," said Allen Weiner, research vice president at Gartner. "Now is a perfect time for publishers to establish relationships with companies that can assist in a rapid deployment of written content."

Click here to view or embed the Scribd Mobile Ecosystem diagram. Click here to view or embed screenshots displaying the send-to-device feature.