Franklin, MDM Ink Pact
by Calvin Reid -- Publishers Weekly, 7/14/2003
Franklin Electronic Publishers announced that it is expanding its licensing agreement with Mobile Digital Media to offer a broader selection of content on multimedia memory expansion cards readable on a variety of handheld devices.
MDM is a separate company started by Palm, which owns about 20% of it, and publishes mostly game content on multimedia cards. Franklin also offers content licensed for Palm. Barry Lipsky, CEO of Franklin, said Palm picked Franklin's Mobipocket reader technology to offer content on MDM multimedia cards for several reasons.
Lipsky explained, "we do reference material and we have a cross-platform format that will work on Palm handheld devices, PocketPC, PDAs and smart phones. These cross-platform titles will play on an installed base of millions of users."
The first material from Franklin to be released on MDM's multimedia card will be Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary along with the Britannica Concise Encyclopedia; the content will be available later this month.
