iPhone's killer app: E-books?
O'Reilly's Ben Lorica took a look (slides below) at the developers behind the most successful applications on the iPhone and found that electronic books may be the killer app, simply because there is a such of wealth of offerings.
According to ReadWriteWeb, Apple's App Store features about 40,000 different apps. Based on recent data, game developers have on average, 2.3 apps in the store while typical e-book vendors have 18 apps, which obviously stacks the odds in their favor.
What's interesting about this is that this news suggests that the iPhone really is a new breed of mini-computer in that people are using it for passive activities such as reading as well games and for interactive tasks such as e-mail.
Books are also currently the fastest growing category in the App Store up 285 percent in the last three months.
For the record, I use a Blackberry Curve as my main device and own an iPod Touch.
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Dave Rosenberg dishes up "Software, Interrupted" with nearly 15 years of technology and marketing experience that spans from Bell Labs to multiple start-up IPOs to open-source enterprise software companies. He is co-founder of MuleSource and currently serves as the general manager of Hardy Way. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can contact Dave via e-mail at softwareinterrupted@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @daveofdoom. 
You're kidding right?
The kindle barely makes it because its just big enough to read comfortably.
Reading anything in the iphone is short term only.
Keep looking at how many apps are actually used after purchase, not many.
And what does "short term only" even mean? For me, for example, Google Reader on iPhone has now replaced the morning paper at the coffee shop. (But you're kind of right though, iFart has lost its charm.)
And there have been demonstrations of how text on the iPhone is almost as large in landscape mode as text on the Kindle. So yeah, further looking reveals stuff - just not what you think it would.
Do you expect Amazon to keep Stanza free and independent as Jeff Bezos says, or do you think Kindle will absorb Stanza? And what will happen to Kindle (the hardware, not the app) if and when Apple comes out with the new iPod Touch Media Pad? An iPod Touch with a 6 or 7 inch screen would be a perfect eReader for any type of publication.
It is the one app I use all the time (every day for an hour or two at least). I have the entire works of Shakespeare, Twain, and numerous others downloaded onto it. All of Project Gutenberg is seamlessly accessible for free downloading of public domain works, as well as a host of numerous free, and for purchase ebook sites and vendors.
Just finished reading John W. Campbell's "Who goes there?" the novella that was the basis for John Carpenter's movie The Thing during my lunch break today. Finished Orwell's 1984 last week and started Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness this evening.
Oh, and those complaining about type size, you haven't a clue as to what you are taking about. I can make any book display with larger type than any dead-tree book out there and have full control of what font, font color, page color, etc.
but yes, stanza drains batteries. i can read maybe 5 hours a day (i have a lot of boring classes) before needing a recharge.
But I do love the Skype app and the JigSee game....
E-books are easy to develop. It's basically just text. Games are difficult to develop.
I own a ******* iPod touch and regardless of the software and battery life, it still sucks as an e-book reader. The screen is way too small.
Let's see some decent reporting from CNET, not this garbage.
I have tried Stanza SEVERAL TIMES on my iPod touch and indeed it does suck. The screen is fine for short-form writing (like newspaper articles and blog entries), not longer format writing. It's the same with video. It's fine for short clips, but not good for full-length feature films.
I downloaded Stanza and at least one other e-book reader to try reading on my iPod touch. The application isn't the problem. IT'S THE PUNY LITTLE SCREEN.
How many g*ddamn times do I have to say it? E-BOOK READING ON THE IPHONE/IPOD TOUCH SUCKS!
Using all caps to tell people to "wake up" is pointless and juvenile. Just because you don't like to read books on it doesn't mean that many of others can't, and don't love to.
That assumes that everyone who tries it will like it. THAT IS WRONG.
- by imcoolerthanyouare77 May 4, 2009 5:24 PM PDT
- I have been a Windows Mobile user for several years now. My current device is the HTC Touch Pro, and I have over 500 ebooks currently synced to it. I read constantly, hours a day, and honestly can't remember the last time I picked up a "dead tree" book.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(18 Comments)Please don't bash me about the Windows phone, I think there are good and bad about Windows, Iphones, and Blackberrys. My point is that my screen is MUCH smaller than the Iphone, and I never have any problems reading on it.