iPhone is a viable ebook reader

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ve probably figured out that one of my small obsessions is talking about new ways to consume literature. As technology has progressed over the last few years, more and more options are coming onto the market that give the reading public easier ways to read their favorite novels (and basically everything else from poetry to internet content).

I recently came across an interesting post on the Print is Dead blog (one of my favorite reads), that took me to another blog that I didn’t even know existed that is simply called The Reader. Much of this blog appears to focus on consuming literature through the infamous iPhone. While the iPhone itself is fairly old news since its release in late June, its ability to be used as an electronic reading device is now being discussed.

One post (iPhone Reader: The Long Sessions)talks about using the iPhone to read ebooks in terms of being easy on the eyes, using the touch screen to flip through the pages, and a few limitations of the iPhone (hey, nothing is perfect, right?). The only real big drawback I saw was that they had to perform a few "hacks" to allow the iPhone to use third-party applications. But after getting through that, it starts to become clear that the iPhone is a great device for reading:

I’ve now had several multi-hour reading sessions on the iPhone, and I’m finding that it affirms my first impressions that its display and touch interface are quite well suited to thepurpose of reading long, text-oriented PDFs. The ultra-sharp screen and flexible zooming — combined with easy rotation to landscape orientation — allow fixed-page (non-reflowable) PDFs to display at a comfortable reading size. While I’ve generally hated reading on small devices like PDAs in the past, the iPhone’s excellent display makes it not just viable but actually quite enjoyable. I read in a variety of lighting conditions, including bright outdoor sunlight, artificial light and total darkness, and in all cases, the display performed brilliantly.

Whether or not the iPhone is the great new device for ebooks remains to be seen (I doubt it is, although the iPhone is promising). But Apple can make this device even more desirable by making a few simple changes like allowing third-party applications for more functionality and maybe giving us some more memory to play with. The author of The Reader’s blog post also pointed out a few more improvements that can be made:

Lack of a bookmarking function for the book-length PDFs was a major problem. Each time I loaded the book into Safari, I had to manually scroll to the desired page — obviously not an ideal solution.

All in all, my longer-term experience with reading ebooks on the iPhone confirms my initial testing — its hardware and user interface show tremendous potential, but the lack of a readily-accessible file system and full-featured reader software will continue to hamper mainstream users. The building blocks are all in place. It’s now up to Apple — or the growing army of highly creative iPhone Hackers— to put together all the pieces.

For the sake of non-techie people like me, I hope that Apple takes the lead and makes these improvements without the help of hacks – as a mistake trying to alter the iPhone can easily render this high-priced gadget useless within mere seconds.

Despite the drawbacks however, I’m drawn to the iPhone because of its potential in the ebook market. Just think, being able to buy and download an ebook right to your iPhone and start reading it then and there – even if your on the bus heading to work or lounging by the pool at a hotel. Also, with so many functions rolled into one, the iPhone will save you lots of room in your bag/briefcase/purse/pocket because you no longer have to carry a separate cell phone, iPod, book, day planner and everything else one needs.

In closing, I’ll say that the market for a popular ebook reader is still wide open. All the companies that have attempted to produce and sell readers are shooting themselves in the foot by insisting on proprietary software that makes reading ebooks in different formats very hard (if not impossible). Apple is certainly guilty of this as well. If a reading device came onto the market that had an easy interface, open-source software to allow for rapid improvements, sturdy and affordable, it would fly off the shelf like hotcakes.

Apple almost has it, just as Sony almost had it with their eReader (but it has serious limitations when reading ebooks in different formats and its software is, no surprise, proprietary). Ebooks are gaining popularity each year, so its just a matter of time before they become mainstream. And when they do, the face of publishing will never be the same.

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