Readers Tap Smart Book To Pull Up Information On Mobile Devices

Atria Publishing, a division of Simon and Schuster, has published its first “smart book” equipped with an embedded smart chip to provide readers with more information. When users tap on the book’s RFID-enabled sticker on the cover with their smartphones, the phones will automatically pull up a website with additional information about the book. Judith Curr, Executive Vice President and Publisher of Atria Books, explains the technology:

The smart book allows the physical book to become interactive for both the book buyer and the book browser. The goal is to engage the consumer and start a permission-based two-way relationship that may lead to the sale of this book or further sales in this category of interest.

The Impulse Economy: Understanding Mobile Shoppers and What Makes Them Buy, by Gary Schwartz, is the flagship product of this new technology and is available at most U.S. bookstores for US$24.

Atria Publishing