[Web4lib] Library In A Pocket: Some Prefer To Read (Some) eBooks On SmartPhones

[McKiernan, Gerard [LIB]]

NYTimes / November 18, 2009 / Library in a Pocket By MOTOKO RICH and
BRAD STONE

 

With Amazon's Kindle, readers can squeeze hundreds of books into a
device that is smaller than most hardcovers. For some, that's not small
enough. Many people who want to read electronic books are discovering
that they can do so on the smartphones that are already in their pockets
- bringing a whole new meaning to "phone book." [snip]

 

[snip]

 

Over the last eight months, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and a range of
smaller companies have released book-reading software for the iPhone and
other mobile devices. One out of every five new applications introduced
for the iPhone last month was a book, according to Flurry, a research
firm that studies mobile trends.

 

All of that activity raises a question: Does the future of book reading
lie in dedicated devices like the Kindle, or in more versatile gadgets
like mobile phones? [snip]

 

But there are already 84 million smartphones that can run applications
in the United States alone, according to IDC, a research firm. Apple has
sold more than 50 million iPhones and iPod Touches, which both run
e-book software.  Apple itself doesn't see the iPhone as the ultimate
reading device. Next year, it is likely to further stir up the e-book
market if, as expected, it introduces a tablet computer - a device
bigger than a phone that will most likely run e-reader software along
with other programs intended for the iPhone.

 

People once scoffed at the idea of reading a book on a 3.5-inch mobile
screen. For many readers, though, sheer convenience trumps everything
else.

 

[more]

 

Access To An Excerpted Version Of The Article And The Original Full Text
Is Available At 

 

[ http://tinyurl.com/y8t8qy3 ]

 

EnJOY!

 

/Gerry 

 

Gerry McKiernan

Associate Professor

Science and Technology Librarian

Iowa State University Library

Ames IA 50011

 

gerrymck at iastate.edu

 

There Is No Answer, Only Solutions / Olde Irish Saying

 

The Future Is Already Here, It's Just Not Evenly Distributed

Attributed To William Gibson, SciFi Author / Coined 'Cyberspace