Perfect Match is teaming up with Gumiyo, a provider of mobile development and mobile publishing solutions. Together the dynamic duo will combine their services on a mobile platform for publishers.

“Simple” is the word used by both companies to describe the basic nature and goals of the coupling: Gumiyo mobilizes, Perfect Market monetizes. Correspondingly, the combination of Gumiyo’s mobile platform with Perfect Market’s traffic and content optimization solutions create a better experience for mobile users and increased profits for content publishers.

While consumer adaption of mobile devices has been strong, advertising on these platforms has lagged. The combination of Perfect Market and Gumiyo allows publishers to take full advantage of mobile opportunities and moves mobile from being a “must have” for consumers to a “must have” revenue opportunity for publishers.

“Perfect Market and Gumiyo have deployed their solution on Tier 1 premium publishers and are showing record rates of mobile traffic and monetization,” explained Perfect Market CEO Julie Schoenfeld.

“Finally, publishers can generate meaningful revenue results from mobile, while having complete control over content, layout and user experience for every device” continues Gumiyo CEO Shuki Lehavi.

“Currents” – which was formerly dubbed “Propeller” as a code-name during beta testing – is a mobile app available on both Android and iOS devices.

Publishers can subsequently unleash their content to the masses in a trendy magazine-style web app, which can be viewed on tablets and smartphones with HTML5 compatibility.

“Google Currents is a new application for Android devices, iPads and iPhones that lets you explore online magazines and other content with the swipe of a finger,” says Google. “It brings together this content in a beautiful and simple way so you can easily navigate between words, pictures and video on your smartphone or tablet.”

In addition to the native features included (see the video below for specifics), the company plans to add a slew of sophisticated post-launch capabilities, like the ability to sell individual articles via Google Checkout.

Click here to view the embedded video.

On Thursday, Amazon announced KDP Select, a new option featuring a $6 million annual fund dedicated to independent authors and publishers.

In a nutshell, here’s how it works: if a KDP author or publisher agrees to make their book(s) exclusive to the Kindle Store for at least 90 days, “those books are eligible to be included in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library and can earn a share of the $6 million fund.”

The monthly fund for December 2011 is $500,000.

The monthly royalty payment for each KDP Select book is based on that book’s share of the total number of borrows of all participating KDP books in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. For example, if total borrows of all participating KDP Select books are 100,000 in December and an author’s book was borrowed 1,500 times, they will earn $7,500 in additional royalties from KDP Select in December.

Amazon is letting authors and publishers enroll a single book, their whole catalog, or as many titles as they would prefer.

KDP Select officially launched today, and so far, 31 of the top 50 KDP authors have already enrolled 129 titles, Amazon says.

The latest projections from the prominent research firm show that continued strong growth in the dedicated eReader market, allied to an upsurge in usage across tablet devices, “will push annual revenues from eBooks delivered to portable devices to $9.7 billion by 2016.”

If you’re not keeping tabs, that’s an increase of almost $7 billion from this year, which will see about $3 billion in eBook sales.

Juniper’s report – Mobile Publishing: eBooks, eMagazines & eNewspapers for Smart Devices – indicates that the increasing demand for tablets means that these devices will account for nearly 30% of all eBook downloads by 2016.

In addition to the higher rate of tablet penetration, eBook access on these devices has already been boosted by the launch of leading brand bookstore applications, such as Apple’s iBookStore and Amazon’s Kindle.

So does this development foreshadow sudden death for the brick-and-mortar bookstores of the world?

Not necessarily.

“While the transition to eCommerce and to digital content delivery has demonstrably had a negative impact on traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ retailers,” Juniper says, “the report observed larger bookstore chains increasingly seeking to marry their digital and physical activities.”

“The Barnes & Noble model has been to use its own brand eReader – and its tablet application – to act as a bridge between online and in-store purchases,” writes report author Dr. Windsor Holden. “The other chains are picking up on that, launching their own devices, offering digital coupons to be redeemed in-store, reinforcing the relationship with the consumer.”

The company announced recently that it had secured a $20M loan with High River Limited Partnership, a venture capital firm owned by Carl Icahn, who also owns approximately 14.6 percent of Motricity.  The company is quickly trying to rebuild itself following several lawsuits and an $11M insider trading scheme perpetrated by former CEO Ryan Wuerch and other senior executives.

Just last month, law firm Goldfarb Branham LLP announced a class action against the company regarding alleged violations of shareholder protection laws and detailing the insider trading scheme that has devastated the company’s finances.

Another class action suit the company is facing accuses Motricity of violating the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.  According to the suit, Motricity priced its June 2010 IPO at $10 per share, for net proceeds of $51.4 million, but misled investors by asserting the company would “continue to achieve success despite the increasing popularity of smartphones.”  The law firm that filed the suit claims that as a result of Motricity’s statements, its stock traded at artificially inflated prices, peaking at $30.74 per share on Nov. 9.  Following the exit of the executives involved in the scandal, Motricity is still looking for replacements.

The company has retained GCA Savvian Advisors as it explores strategic options including a spinoff, sale or other transactions involving its operator business and mobile marketing initiatives.

Google launching its very own social and news reader could prove hugely successful, say those who claim to know of Google’s aspirations to challenge Flipboard.

According to the Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital, social media and tech guru Robert Scoble says Google is, indeed, working on the hush-hush project.

“I heard from someone working with Google that Google is working on a Flipboard competitor for both Android and iPad,” posted Scoble on his social media feed via Google +. “My source says that the versions he’s seen so far are mind-blowing good.”

Sources said Propeller is apparently one of a number of new socially focused announcements Google is prepping, including new apps. But the timing for their launch is unclear.

Kara Swisher of All Things Digital describes Propeller as “a souped-up version of similar reader apps such as Flipboard, AOL’s Editions, Yahoo’s Livestand, Zite (which was just bought by Time Warner’s CNN) and Pulse.”

To read the full report, click here.

John Locke, the bestselling self-published author of the Donovan Creed novels – has been offered a deal by traditional publishing house Simon & Schuster.

Writing eBooks only to be discovered by a major international publisher is the dream of many self-published authors. And this latest news proves that the big publishers are, indeed, interested in people whose work performs well in the digital realm.

“There are many paths from author to reader,” Locke said following the announcement, “and any path that puts the reader first will be successful. This agreement represents an exciting departure from the norm, and I applaud Simon & Schuster’s incredible vision, and their willingness to provide a vehicle that allows all readers traditional access to my books.”

Locke, however, is a shrewd businessman. He will retain the print and digital rights to his works and isn’t turning over e-book sales responsibilities to the publisher. He’s still a do-it-yourself kind of guy.

Shortly before Locke’s deal was announced, the eBook world was last buzzing on the heels of Amanda Hocking – a 26-year-old self-published author – signing a $2 million deal with St. Martin’s earlier this year.

Likening Apple’s actions to a plot intended “to boost profits and force e-book rival Amazon.com to abandon its pro-consumer discount pricing,” the lawsuit assuses Apple of unfair business practices.

Filed this week in a California district court by law firm Hagens Berman on behalf of plaintiffs Anthony Petru and Marcus Mathis, the suit blames Apple and its publishing cohorts for having “colluded… to illegally fix prices.”

Now it’s up to the legal system to decide if Apple truly is “in violation of a variety of federal and state antitrust laws.”

“As a result of the pricing conspiracy, prices of ebooks have exploded, jumping as much as 50%. When an ebook version of a bestseller costs close to or even more than its hard-copy counterpart, it doesn’t take a forensic economist to see that this is evidence of market manipulation,” said Steve Berman, founding partner of Hagens Berman, in a press release about the suit.

“Fortunately for the publishers, they had a co-conspirator as terrified as they were over Amazon’s popularity and pricing structure, and that was Apple. We intend to prove that Apple needed a way to neutralize Amazon’s Kindle before its popularity could challenge the upcoming introduction of the iPad – a device Apple intended to compete as an e-reader,” Berman concluded in the statement.

According to a report from Reuters, Baidu will absorb an 80% stake in the venture, which will officially launch next month.

Meanwhile, NTT DoCoMo will control the remaining 20% – not to mention invest $24.7 million.

Baidu has not yet formally commented on the nature of its investment, but estimates peg its financial contribution at about $197.6 million.

Essentially, the partnership will enable DoCoMo and Baidu to jointly assist Japanese content providers in a wide array of aspects, including the development of mobile games, animated video and even comic books that target smartphone users.

DoCoMo will supply expertise in building content distribution systems optimized for the mobile channel.

In the coming months, these and other partnerships will continue to take center stage as Asia grows increasingly more important in the mobile community.

In fact, according to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Chinese mobile subscriber market now eclipses the 900 million mark (as of May 2011).

If eMarketer’s projections manifest, the outcome will reflect a sobering reality for traditional print newspapers, the revenues of which will drop another 6% to $21.4 billion this year.

In addition to the mounting evidence that digital newspapers are accelerating in popularity to an entirely new degree, old-school print newspapers and magazines are continuing to endure limited growth if not an outright earnings washout.

On Thursday, a prominent example of declining revenues for traditional print media was apparent.

Revenue for the New York Times fell to $566.5 million from $587.9 million a year earlier. Industry and Wall Street analysts had projected $569 million.

NYTimes.com, however, continues to enjoy steady growth. The site remains the world’s most viewed English-language newspaper website with 62 million unique monthly visitors, according to comScore.

Of course, the venerable publication hasn’t been without its fair share of electronic hurdles.

In the first two weeks of the NY Times’ new digital paywall, user traffic and site usage plummeted by as much as 15% on some days.