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iPhone Now the Biggest eBook Reader?

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Forbes reveals that Stanza [App Store], a free eBook reading application for the iPhone, has distributed over 395,000 copies via the App Store.

Forbes notes that this exceeds the estimated number of Kindles sold for 2008 and likely makes the iPhone the biggest eBook reader on the market. To be fair Stanza is a free download, but the intent is still there.
Stanza, like Kindle, lets users download new content directly to their device. It has a snappy interface that allows readers to flip through a book simply by tapping the edges of the page and responds far faster than Kindle's poky E-ink screen, which takes about a second to turn pages. On the downside, the iPhone's LCD screen can strain eyes after hours of reading and chews through battery power far faster than Kindle or the Sony Reader, both of which can go without recharging for days.
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At the moment, however, all of the titles available to Stanza are public domain titles while the Kindle commands premium pay titles. Stanza's developer is working on deals with major publishers to try to sell newer eBooks to its users.
"Once we've got that kind of deal done," says Prud'hommeaux, "you'll be able to do everything on the iPhone that you can now do on the Kindle: browse, purchase, download and read a book without interacting with your computer in any way."
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Stanza users are said to have downloaded over 2 million of the public domain eBooks at this time.


Article Link
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2008/10/03/iphone-now-the-biggest-ebook-reader/
Shasterball said:
Just because people download a free program, doesn't mean they use it...
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Exactly. I downloaded this app, but I rarely use it for no particular reason. I would think that if someone invests money into hardware for a particular purpose most if not all are actually using them for that purpose. I'm sure many people have downloaded this app and it is just sitting on their phone or even in iTunes doing nothing...
 
Exactly - I and my wife downloaded it but since it sucks and does work with most of my ebooks I deleted it - Bookshelf is way better and has many more options - and as soon as Apple gets the act together the 1.2 Update to Bookshelf will be out with tons of additional features!
 
Stupid conclusion to a meaningless story

As it has previously been mentioned, the product is FREE! The fact that a few hundred thousand folks downloaded the product means little. Until you have monitized the product where it requires folks to hand over their hard earned cash you have no idea how successful a product is. If you gave out Sony Readers for free I have no doubt that millions would be "sold".

I have downloaded the product and used it twice. I found that it wasn't nearly as good as the other products which cost money and haven't used the product since. You need to get a certain number of lines of text on the screen to make an ereader feasible otherwise you are constantly moving your fingers to change the page. Older PDA's had a similar problem but at least the HP units had a simple thumb wheel on the side which made screen scrolling effortless. Screen scrolling with the iPhone is not effortless. The iPhone simply does not provide enough lines to screeen.
 
I don't see much selection, and it's hard to browse. One section has authors sorted by a mix of first names and first initials! Maybe I'm missing something.

There's an older work (Sartre's Nausea) that I want to read, but I can't find it.)

Still, it's a start, and free. I like that the list views rotate to landscape, though.

What iPhone ebook readers do others recommend?

As for scrolling, I think I'd want:

* Landscape mode for big, wide lines of text

* Tap anywhere (other than a page-back-button in the corner) to auto-scroll down one screen (and then to the next page) so dragging is optional

* Ideally 3 screen-sized "segments" per page--no more than that

* Full-page-at-once view when in portrait mode

For the convenience of not always carrying a physical book or a second device, I think I'd find that useful.
 
Honestly, I can't understand why Apple doesn't add eBooks to the iTunes store. They already have the distribution method in place and many people spend hours reading stuff on their iPhones and iPod Touches already!
 
johnnyjibbs said:
Good isn't it?! Sounds like people do still read then, but we all knew the Kindle wasn't going to sell with a look like that... 😀
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I might agree, but a woman I work with has two, one for her and one for her husband. They LOVE the kindle. I played with it for a bit, and while it is not great looking, it works well, is easy to read and is seamless with its method of updating newspapers and book content. Not as bad as you may think!
 
I'd love it if we could get newer books for free... or maybe as a monthly fee sort of thing (pay $5-10 a month and get unlimited access to books... like Netflix is with movies...)

for free... maybe they could make them ad based. There would be banner advertisements and a 30 second commercial every 10 pages or so.
 
penguy said:
I might agree, but a woman I work with has two, one for her and one for her husband. They LOVE the kindle. I played with it for a bit, and while it is not great looking, it works well, is easy to read and is seamless with its method of updating newspapers and book content. Not as bad as you may think!
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The Kindle is less bulky in person that I expected--it's kind of cool in it's own way, I just wouldn't want a separate device, personally.

What IS nice is the non-illuminated screen. Easy on the eyes than, say, a laptop or illuminated phone/PDA. I found myself wishing the Kindle screen were black-on-WHITE instead of black-on-gray, though. With that gray background, I'd still prefer good old white paper books.
 
nagromme said:
The Kindle is less bulky in person that I expected--it's kind of cool in it's own way, I just wouldn't want a separate device, personally.

What IS nice is the non-illuminated screen. Easy on the eyes than, say, a laptop or illuminated phone/PDA. I found myself wishing the Kindle screen were black-on-WHITE instead of black-on-gray, though. With that gray background, I'd still prefer good old white paper books.
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I agree, but at the same time, I find it unlikely that I would read a complete book on the iPhone screen. I didn't play with the Kindle settings too much, but the fonts were razor sharp. I found the page button to be too easy to tap and the delay in turning a little annoying, but, if it was less expensive, and I spent more time on a train commuting, it (the kindle) would be the way to go.
 
nagromme said:
I don't see much selection, and it's hard to browse. One section has authors sorted by a mix of first names and first initials! Maybe I'm missing something.

There's an older work (Sartre's Nausea) that I want to read, but I can't find it.)

Still, it's a start, and free. I like that the list views rotate to landscape, though.

What iPhone ebook readers do others recommend?

As for scrolling, I think I'd want:

* Landscape mode for big, wide lines of text

* Tap anywhere (other than a page-back-button in the corner) to auto-scroll down one screen (and then to the next page) so dragging is optional

* Ideally 3 screen-sized "segments" per page--no more than that

* Full-page-at-once view when in portrait mode

For the convenience of not always carrying a physical book or a second device, I think I'd find that useful.
Click to expand...

BOOKSHELF Has all those features (except full page view)and the 1.2 update was submitted to Apple 18 days ago. -
 
Missing the point

Man, this story from Forbes is so missing the point.

How is eReader doing? THAT is the equivalent to kindle, not Stanza.

eReader is associated with the old Palm format, and its books are purchased from eReader.com or fictionwise.com. I've bought about 25 books over the last couple of years from fictionwise, originally reading them on Palm Pilot, and then switched to eReader as soon as it came out.

I've just finished reading "Anathem" by Neal Stephenson, a recently released book, and a variety of other books only available through purchase.

THIS is the equivalent to kindle (purchased books, reading experience on the device) that invites comparison!

How are THEIR sales doing? I emailed fictionwise.com awhile back to suggest they publish some downloads/sales figures, but they weren't interested in saying.
 
SoSII said:
dont forget there is also ereader which is free (and some others I think)..
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I use eReader and have for several years. It is one of my most used apps. It supports multiple platforms. eReader also allows you to download directly to the iPhone.
 
Bwahahahahahahahahahahaaaa!!! A single FREE iPhone app .... overnight.... destroys the viability, worthiness and lead of Amazon's struggling Kindle. LMAO
 
Forbes and it's writers are stupid.

A single application does not make iPhone ebook reader. And even if it does then iPhone would not be the biggest ebook reader on the market. There are probably millions of people reading ebooks from their pcs which will make pcs biggest ebook reader on the market.
 
I have been happy with it so far.

Right now I am in the middle of "Hound of Baskerville's". You can find lots of classic books + plato, socrates, etc.

It remembers what page you were on. Flipping pages is easy. Now, if they could automatically read it to me in a normal voice, that would be the killer app.
 
chameleon81 said:
Forbes and it's writers are stupid.

A single application does not make iPhone ebook reader. And even if it does then iPhone would not be the biggest ebook reader on the market. There are probably millions of people reading ebooks from their pcs which will make pcs biggest ebook reader on the market.
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I think they're assuming the term "ebook reader" to imply portability, comparable to an actual book.

CADer said:
BOOKSHELF Has all those features (except full page view)and the 1.2 update was submitted to Apple 18 days ago. -
Click to expand...

Thanks! I'll check it out.
 
Missing The Point

E-Ink isn't designed to compete with LCD, plasma, or OLED. E-Ink is for people who love reading books and can't stand the strain of using the alternatives. It's not designed to be beautiful. It's not designed to be super colorful. It's designed so that you can continue to read at the same pace as your traditional book, while using no paper, and having multiple books in one place.

Look up any study on reading words per minute and you'll find that reading LCD, plasma, and OLED slow down your ability to soak up words, create headaches over extended periods, and are generally not good for your eyes (they're bright).

People who compare E-Ink with the iPhone, or Palm, or any other miniature LCD screen, just don't get it.
 
Auctor said:
E-Ink isn't designed to compete with LCD, plasma, or OLED. E-Ink is for people who love reading books and can't stand the strain of using the alternatives. It's not designed to be beautiful. It's not designed to be super colorful. It's designed so that you can continue to read at the same pace as your traditional book, while using no paper, and having multiple books in one place.

Look up any study on reading words per minute and you'll find that reading LCD, plasma, and OLED slow down your ability to soak up words, create headaches over extended periods, and are generally not good for your eyes (they're bright).

People who compare E-Ink with the iPhone, or Palm, or any other miniature LCD screen, just don't get it.
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+1
Today i checked Sony's ebook reader again. How it shows the words is amazing. It doesn' t feel like looking at a lcd screen.

I wish they implement sth like underlining and post it style note taking for pages then i ll buy it.
 
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