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Originally Posted by koland
Reading on the palm or iphone simply isn't the same as the Kindle (although the OLD palm's come close - but with the same small screen limitation of the iphone) and onscreen presents it's own challenges/problems (for any reader format).
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Why should the iPhone be worse than the old Palm? The screens are about the same size, and the same resolution (for the newer Palms, or twice that of the older ones).
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Considering the dismal battery life of the ipod touch/iphone (and their primary use for music and phones), I doubt much actual reading occurs (other than web surfing), despite the number that have experimented by downloading the reader.
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I've not noticed excessive battery problems in my reading on my iPod Touch. Turn the backlight down to about 30%, turn WiFi and the telephone network connections off (they take up power even when you're not using them, just trying to connect), and you can read for hours. The Fictionwise people did experiments on an iPod Touch at various light levels and found that with reasonable battery precautions you can read for more than 10-12 hours on a full battery charge.
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ereader.com likes to claim a certain number of books downloaded -- that includes all my old ones that I downloaded, out of curiosity, but none of which I'll re-read on the iphone.
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I suspect that we only ever hear from loud advocates on both ends—people like you who don't like reading on small screens, or people like me who do. Most people who like reading probably aren't that loud. I think there are more iPhone/iPod readers than you might think.
The form factor is very similar to the Palm, which kicked off the first e-reading revolution—and as with the Palm, lots of people will be buying it for other purposes (the phone, listening to music) and discovering how easy it is to read on them. I suspect that the adoption base of the iPhone or iPod Touch is much wider than the Palm's, at least at first, as people find it a lot easier to justify spending money on a phone or mp3 player than on a pocket organizer.
So, I wouldn't count the iPhone/iTouch out. The Kindle may be a larger device with louder publicity, but I think the iPhone/iTouch may do more for e-books in the long run.