Watch out Amazon Kindle, Apple's Book sales are skyrocketing

Kids books on iPhones

In a recent abcnews.com article http://tr.im/oXCR the subject about parenting and iPhones came up. Parents are looking for tools to enrich children's lives no matter what the format. Kids are as comfortable reading with an iTouch as they are with a book. As long as we realize that the digital natives are happy with content in many forms and it can be produced it in multiple ways we will all see a greater return on our creations.

iPhone eBook Readers

So now as of end of April we see that Amazon has snapped up Stanza and says they will let Stanza run independent of Kindle. We’ll wait and see how long that lasts. What does an independent author of an eBook do if he/she wants their own iPhone app? Whose eBook reader can they use?

The Toy Lounge of St. Paul MN - http://thetoylounge.com/ebooks - creates iPhone apps for eBooks, and can incorporate the Toy Lounge eBook Reader into each custom eBook application.

eBooks on iPhone

The Toy Lounge of St. Paul MN - http://thetoylounge.com - creates iPhone apps for ebooks and children's books among other things. Illustrated Children's books are much easier to turn into iPhone apps because they don't need special readers like eBooks do.

hmmm

I own both the Kindle 2 and an iPhone.. I simply CAN NOT read a book on the smaller iPhone screen, plus it really eats the battery up.

Spikes in the wind

I can't help but compare this to the Release of Google Chrome. Shortly after it was made available to the public, millions of copies were downloaded, and the press decried a new way of browsing that would end all other competition. It didn't happen. People were just curious, and once they slaked their thirst for this new product, they dropped it like a hot potato. Chrome is hardly talked about these days and I suspect that very few use it.

I have a feeling that iPhone book reading will turn out to ride the same roller coaster. Many people will charge forward either because they are Mac fanbois who have to do it on their newest Mac toy no matter what, or because they have iToys and are curious. The fanbois we will always have with us, so there's not a lot we can do about them, but the curious will soon slake their curiosity and return to better, more traditional (and easier on the eyes) ways to read books.

Only the diehard, with 20-15 vision so that they can read that tiny print will use their iPhones or iPods to read books for more than a few months. The rest will return to more traditional forms of reading once eyestrain convinces them that reading on screens smaller than 3X5 cards is just not very fun or relaxing.

And finally, regardless of whatever else I have stated here, Steve Jobs, I hope you are noting that there are too plenty of people who still read in this day and age. Please consider dropping your Fahrenheit 451 notions of the place of prose in the modern world.

Kindle on my iTouch

I have the Kindle software installed on my 32 gb iTouch and it works as smoothly for purchasing a book from Amazon as I imagine a Kindle does. It is really quick too.

As for the screen size, well I've been reading ebooks on my Palm Pilot PDA for years and watching movies on my classic iPod's tiny screen until I switched to the larger screen on my new iTouch and haven't had a problem with it bothering my eyes either and it doesn't bother the wife trying to sleep beside me because I use ear pods for the sound.

In fact my only problem is forgetting that it's 4 am in the morning when I've finished watching a movie or reading an ebook while in bed, not getting enough sleep and having a difficult time getting up in the morning.

I suppose I'm what you would call a 'gear-head' because I love the latest technology which I suppose is why I purchased a new Blackberry Bold this weekend as a 2nd phone and to replace my aging PDA.

But, irregardless of 'what' you buy/use to read, "READ" because reading is such a great pleasure and I try to get as many young people to start reading for enjoyment as I can, be it fiction like the popular Twilight© series or something in the fantasy world that appeals to young men.

Books for kids - iPhone, yes - Kindle, no.

For young kids (2 to 10), the Kindle does not provide a platform for their picture books. However, my wife and I use iKids Play on our iPhone and Touch (respectively) for our kids picture books. This little app provides play based on the book content and has a story feature that reads the books to them. We find it great in restaurants, for soccer/baseball practice and in the car! No books to carry around when out and about, but we still have the print books for bedtime reading. It gives us the best of both worlds. They currently have six books and we hope they add more from the various publishers. It is better than playing games or the "sound effect" apps that are free and annoying after a while.