Why do you think that people will read on both platforms?

I’m one of those people. My iLiad is my primary e-reader, but I don’t usually carry it with me when I leave the house. I always have my iPod with me, however, since I use it primarily as my daytimer, so I also use it as my “auxiliary” e-reader.

[M]ost people (the vast majority) read one book beginning to end before starting a second book.

I’m one of those people, too.

It would certainly be difficult to read the same book on both platforms; how would you know where you are with different methods of “pagination”?

I haven’t found this to be much of a problem. Sure, it requires a bit of navigation to find my place when I switch devices, but it typically takes less than a minute to do so. It’s a small price to pay to be able to keep reading when I find myself with some time to kill while I’m away from home.

Battery Life: The iPhone’s battery life may be a bit short if you don’t take any measures to preserve it, but there are things that can be done to extend it. Turn off wi-fi, BlueTooth…even go into full-on Airplane Mode to shut down the cell-phone side of things. You won’t be able to make or receive calls, but that just means you’ll have some uninterrupted reading time.

As for the iPod Touch, battery tests have shown you can get 9 to 10 hours of reading time out of it on a charge. That’s not too bad.

Book Prices, Selection: I’m not sure how Amazon has that great an advantage here. I gather that their book prices tend to be a bit cheaper than the dead-tree prices, but in about the same range. And you can only buy from Amazon (or else go through a bit of rigamarole to convert stuff bought elsewhere). The iPhone on the other hand can buy from eReader and Fictionwise (via eReader) and Baen Webscriptions (via Bookshelf). eReader and Fictionwise price some books fairly high but other fairly low, and Baen’s prices are a lot cheaper than the dead-tree editons.

Screen Glare: I’ll grant this is an issue, but no reader is perfect.

And so many people started e-reading with the original Palm that it caused a sea change in e-book reading—it pretty much single-handedly created the handheld e-book market that launched both eReader (nee Peanut Press) and Fictionwise.

I can’t help thinking it’s just a little too late to be doubtful people will read on screens that tiny. The evidence shows they’ve been doing it for ten years; why would they stop now?

I think the more likely scenario is that casual readers — those who read 1-3 books a year or largely read fan fiction, magazines, or newspapers — will be willing to read on the iPhone-type device (largely, I suspect, because they have short attention spans for reading), whereas the serious reader will not be willing to do more than casual reading, if even that, on such devices, preferring instead the dedicated ebook-reading device.

I know that in my case, I have no interest in reading on an iPhone-type device. I can’t imagine reading 4-5 hours a day on it, which is what I currently spend reading on my Sony Reader.

1. Oh, heck, the iPhone doesn’t literally simulate a p-book. Common apps use reflowable text, not a PDFish approach. And of course there are the usual advantages of e-books. Even an 8G Touch, which I down, can include a pretty good-sized personal library.

2. Platform depends on the users’ preference. eReader / Fictionwise has already told how it’s moving iPhone books.

3. Many people will read on both platforms. The larger-screened Sony Reader or Kindle might be good for the home or office. But you can’t put either in your pants pocket, etc.

Thanks,
David