There is a program for the iPhone and iTouch called Stanza. This program allows users to fully customize and enjoy book reading down to chapter selection, font, color, search, and so much more. The interface is so fast under the powerful and fluid-capable specs of the iPhone. I somewhat lust to see a color-capable Sony version with similiar features. However, the iPhone is just big enough to be useable as a book reader and really shines. It’s really amusing to me how quickly this caught on as I just read about it in Forbes. I downloaded this program a week ago when I stumbled across it in the App Store. Yes, I am an iPhone user. I know I have this Sony gig but let me tell you what, the phone is simply unbelieveable especially with a FREE program like this that has FREE access to literally thousands of books.
I know I sound like a spammer in the above paragraph with my enthusiasm. Many people are adopting this program and using it; Stanza has been downloaded almost 400,000 times since July and averages 5,000 installs a day, according to Forbes. Andy Greenberg writes, “Citigroup estimates Amazon will sell around 380,000 Kindles in 2008. Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey expects Sony’s Reader will sell only a fraction of that number. In other words, Apple may have inadvertently sold more e-readers than any other company in the nascent digital book market.”
It works because it’s consolidating two technologies into one very successfully. What’s truly surprising is that I don’t think Sony or Amazon really expected something like this and now they have been thrown off course. I use the program somewhat, and I enjoy how you can resize the text and have more lines per page which are fairly easy to read over an extended period of time. Searching is cool and the chapter selection feels like a DVD. Now while some of these features are present on the Reader and Kindle, there’s something about having it on your cell phone that makes reading have the possibility to become more spontaneous and make someone want to do it. It’s great to read a little Shakespeare on the go, and believe me, they have just about have most of his works as well as anything else truly classic.
The iBook is born, and is being adopted faster than the Reader and Kindle. What will Sony do? Obviously, it takes away potential customers from buying the Reader and they will need to counteract. Maybe they should bring reading applications to all capable Sony devices with an internet connection and do the same. They are releasing a PRS-700 model soon as noted recently by Crave that has a backlight today so that will at least eliminate that advantage. However, the brilliant LCD screen of the iPhone/iTouch is really great for book reading..
Do you agree?
iPod = Takes Over Music Industry
iPhone = Takes Over Phone Industry
iBook = Takes Over Book Industry
