“It’s official: The iPhone is more popular than Amazon.com’s Kindle. And not just in the obvious categories like listening to music, browsing the Web or the other applications where Kindle barely competes. Now, the iPhone is also muscling into Amazon’s home turf: reading books,” Andy Greenberg and James Erik Abels report for Forbes.
“Stanza, a book reading application offered in Apple’s iPhone App Store since July, has been downloaded more than 395,000 times and continues to be installed at an average rate of about 5,000 copies a day, according to Portland, Ore.-based Lexcycle, the three-person start-up that created the reading software,” Greenberg and Abels report.
MacDailyNews Note: Stanza is a free app for Apple iPhone and iPod touch.
“By comparison, Citigroup estimates Amazon will sell around 380,000 Kindles in 2008. Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey expects Sony’s Reader will sell only a fraction of that number. In other words, Apple may have inadvertently sold more e-readers than any other company in the nascent digital book market,” Greenberg and Abels report.
MacDailyNews Note: Greenberg and Abels don’t even mention the sales of eReader, another popular free digital book reader for iPhone and iPod touch.
“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,” Greenberg and Abels report. “Lexcycle currently offers only public domain books–most of which were published more than 50 years ago–and creative commons titles offered up without copyright by the books’ authors. The Kindle, by comparison, costs $360 and offers more than 180,000 titles, including new releases and best sellers at around $10 each.”
Greenberg and Abels report, “Still, Lexcycle’s chief executive, Marc Prud’hommeaux, says he’s working on deals with several major publishers–to be announced around the New Year– that would let Stanza sell newer e-books to its growing user base and split the revenue with the content’s owner. That would provide Lexcycle with a source of cash–and could put the iPhone toe-to-toe with Amazon. ‘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.'”
More in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “JES42” for the heads up.]
Plus, as an added bonus, iPhone doesn’t look like something John Dykstra superglued together back in 1975.
It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore. Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore. – Apple CEO Steve Jobs remarking on Amazon’ Kindle, January 15, 2008
Related articles:
Apple iPhone becomes #1 digital book reader; outsells Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader – October 02, 2008
Amazon’s Kindle a huge flop? – July 02, 2008
Apple working on OS X-based multi-touch Kindle killer? – March 03, 2008
Apple CEO Steve Jobs cooking up iBook (Amazon Kindle killer)? – February 05, 2008
Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Amazon Kindle, Google Android, honoring Bill Gates, and more – January 16, 2008
Mossberg reviews Amazon’s Kindle: ‘clumsy and poorly designed’ – November 29, 2007
Forbes: Apple’s iPhone may have already rendered Amazon’s new Kindle eBook reader obsolete – November 19, 2007
Stanza kicks ass. I love reading the classics again. Newer e-books would make it a home run.
I want an iPhoen!
Well, that didn’t take long. My wife tried to buy me a Kindle last Christmas, I told her to just wait for the iPhone 3G. My birthday is in two weeks…
Man, I’ve gotta think of a killer app for the iPhone…
Odd. Steve Jobs says people don’t read books.
Apple to Mac fan boys:
Arrrrgggg! All your DRM are belong to us! Let there be Silence!
LOL! Love the John Dykstra Star Wars reference!
“All your DRM are belong to us!”
Excellent exhibition of missing the point of this article. Well done!
Here’s a clue:
“Lexcycle currently offers only public domain books–most of which were published more than 50 years ago–and creative commons titles offered up without copyright by the books’ authors.”
” iPhone doesn’t look like something John Dykstra superglued together back in 1975.”
Best take ever!
I have Stanza on my iPhone and agree. it’s free and add capability to something I already own, rather than having to buy a specialized reader. Access to newer titles would be a home run. I’m bored of reading the classics
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
I’ve also borrowed and tried out using a Kindle for about a week, and while the device holds promise, it’s not quite there yet – wireless access to the book store and the high contrast low-power e-paper display are definite strong points. but you’re right about it looking like John Dykstra’s superglue project!!
Dykstra take is one for the ages! Well done, MDN!
AAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGG!
Ye scurvy rats, I’ll be takin’ yer books to, no more readin’ no more singin’. And you Modbus me matey, down to the pens for you laddie fer insubordination!
AAARRRRGH!
My personal favorite is iPhone Bookshelf. I don’t like the way eReader takes up space along the left with that menu bar in landscape mode.
iPhone Bookshelf gives you the whole screen (save for the status bar but the author says he’ll get rid of that in a future update), locks in either portrait or landscape mode, lets you add your own files, has auto-scrolling and lets you change the font, font size, font color and background color of the files you’re reading.
I can’t image reading a 1000 page novel on an iPhone. The Kindle is suited much better for this task!
“Plus, as an added bonus, iPhone doesn’t look like something John Dykstra superglued together back in 1975.”
How about Lenny Dykstra?
This head line is very misleading….Basically what you are telling me is that the iphone has been used to read more books then the kindle. This is not true.
I can imagine the Kindle with laser bolts firing from it at an unfortunate rebel alliance cruiser…. I have a bad feeling about this!
By the by, the real issue Amazon has is this: their hardware and software are tied together, while the iPhone’s aren’t. In other words, if a better e-reader comes out for the iPhone, I’m free to buy/download that reader, whereas the Kindle is what it is, which means any problems it has are more difficult to get around.
Watch Apple pull the eReaders from the AppStore as soon as they realize they aren’t getting a cut of that book revenue.
Stanza is my favorite app. Good to hear that they are looking to sell new books.
“Basically what you are telling me is that the iphone has been used to read more books then the kindle. This is not true.”
How is it misleading?
R2,
Stanza does all that and more. Its customizability is one of its many strengths, in my opinion.
It’s great to see the folks at Lexcycle get this attention. They deserve it.
I don’t think Apple’s ability to be a book reader is inadvertent at all…
@treestman,
It does, huh? I guess the last one I used was an old version. I’ll have to check it out sometime and see how it stacks up.
R2,
The review I linked to includes screenshots.
Stanza can take over the entire screen, removing even the info bar at the top. I consider this critical as it helps to get completely absorbed in the reading process.