That’s the news from the O’Reilly Tools of Change blog. It’s just another indication of how the iPhone has become an industry-changing device. I have phones by HTC, Nokia, MWg, Palm and Blackberry, but I simply don’t use them any more. 
Whenever I switch over to one of them for a change of pace, I switch back the next day.
Clunky GUIs compared to the iPhone’s
Their GUI are just so clunky compared to the iPhone that they are painful to operate. On the book reading front, however, I still have the short battery life problem that will keep me locked to my Kindle as my main book reader. Also, the larger screen is just more pleasant.
As to the substance of the post below, the iPhone has a limit of 148 apps. I already have 62 on my phone, so it is unlikely that I will ever take up app space by adding a book, when I can add books by other means.
Conventional wisdom suggests that when choosing pilot projects, you pick ones with a high likelihood of success. It’s hard to argue that iPhone: The Missing Manual was a reasonable choice for testing the iPhone App waters. But while we knew it would do well, we’ve been quite pleased with just how well:
If the iPhone App by itself had been a book, it would be a top 10 seller in BookScan for Computer Books this holiday season, based on just 17 days of sales.
The print version appears to have been unaffected, retaining a solid position in the top 3 for Computer Books in BookScan
A full 1/3 of those buying the app are outside the US, mostly in countries where the print book is not readily available.
There are certainly some who don’t care for the book-as-app approach, preferring the library model (where one app enables reading multiple titles). It’s also clear there’s substantial customer interest in both options, and we strongly believe that offering a variety of options and letting customers choose is the right approach. This is a time for experimentation, and we’ll be doing quite a bit more of it (format, pricing, content) in the digital — and especially mobile — space in the coming months.
