Mobile Reading

A while back, Steve Jobs said America has stopped reading when asked about ebooks and Kindle.  Well, it appears that is not quite so true given the number of ebook readers and standalone ebooks that are available for Apple's mobile platform.

And it's only a matter of time before they appear on Blackberry's app store and Android Marketplace.  Even with the dearth of apps for Android, there are already a couple of ebook and file readers.

So, I'm wondering when we will see e-ink like technology for regular mobile phones and mobile devices like Blackberries.  

With tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of mobile readers world-wide, be it on the iPhone or others, it makes sense that some sort of LED screen should be made available for mobile devices.  Because right now, as popular as the iPhone is for reading (some folks have argued the Apple's app store may have sold more books than Amazon has with Kindle), the iPhone and iPod Touch's screen was never made for ebook reading because due to power consumption.

I've taken my iPhone for reading at Starbucks for a couple of hours.  It works well and there more than enough juice just for that.  But it certainly will not last days like regular e-readers.  The Sony reader can last through 7500 pages turned.  Kindle can "last days" of use.  I doubt the iPhone will last a day of reading.

Perhaps with publishers who seem to embrace ebooks more and more, mobile device makers will realize the importance of reading to mobile warriors.  And with respects to Apple's head honcho, it appears that people still do read.  A lot.

Link:  Wired