Move over Kindle, Japan is way ahead in the ebook game!

Sometimes we Americans like to think we’re so innovative, especially with the much-anticipated (and criticized) release of the Amazon Kindle. Sure, it can hold a few hundred books and download them directly from Amazon’s website. That’s soooo yesterday!

Japan, once again, has figured it out. They asked: Why carry around a cell phone AND a bulky reading device when cell phones are perfectly capable of handling the job of both?

According to the TechCrunch blog, half the top selling books are not only read on mobile phones, but also written on mobile phones as well. I can’t imagine penning a novel with my thumbs using my cell phone. My hands ache just thinking about it. But it’s being done and the results are pretty impressive:

One book, Koizora (Love Sky) about high-school girl who is bullied, gang-raped, becomes pregnant has sold more than 1.2 million copies since being released.

I’m not surprised. The US has not been a leader in taking advantage of existing technology to open up new publishing markets. I don’t know if it’s a cultural issue, a literacy issue or a combination of the two, but the American publishing industry and the reading public are very slow to adopt new ways of doing business.

As a side note, I’ll soon be purchasing an iPhone, which I have read makes for an excellent ebook reader (not sure about PDF though). Once I test it out, I’ll let ya’ll know my impressions.

For the time being, you can read the TechCrunch blog post: In Japan Half The Top Selling Books Are Written On Mobile Phones

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