inbabble.com

Ink printed on paper has been the standard book reading format for thousands of years. The idea that electronic devices of various kinds might replace it hasn’t been around for quite so long. Yet one of the latest techno-crazes in Japan involves people writing and distributing entire novels by mobile phone. And companies as significant as Sony have released mobile book reading devices featuring ‘electronic paper‘ that are capable of storing hundreds of books, and provide a paper-like reading experience. The idea of reading books on a mobile device is coming of age. But it won’t replace the ink-and-paper book any time soon.

Keitai shosetsu (literally ‘portable novel’) is a mobile content and publishing phenomenon in Japan, where 5 out of the last 10 bestselling novels in 2007 were written on mobile phones. They are distributed via sites like maho i-Land (Japanese only) which now has 1 million novels that can be downloaded onto users’ mobile devices. We’re not necessarily talking about the highest quality fiction here. Many have more in common with manga than they do with Jane Austen, and both authors and readers tend to be girls and young women in their late teens and twenties. Many of the novels are downloaded in installments, just as novels by the likes of Charles Dickens used to be in the 19th century. And much of the content takes the form of conversations written in short paragraphs that are well suited to reading by scrolling on the small screen of a typical mobile device.

One alternative to the consumption of books on mobile phones is to buy a dedicated device called an ebook reader. These devices don’t have telephony functionality, but do feature wireless Internet access for use within home/office wireless networks or public Wi-Fi hotspots. Devices such as Sony’s Reader are capable of storing hundreds of books and feature an ‘electronic paper’ display which, like real paper, can be read in all lighting conditions and from a wide range of angles.

Both of these developments are interesting but it’s difficult to say whether book reading will evolve into a key mobile application. The Japanese craze is at least in part, driven by the style of the books themselves - short paragraphs, simple plots, easy to read on a small screen. And Japanese success stories don’t always translate well to audiences in other parts of the world. Ebook readers could also be attractive to many people in the longer-term, but probably not until the technology has evolved to offer full color, and not until the devices themselves look less like PDAs or pocket PCs, behave more like real paper and feature a wider range of functionality.

Imagine a fully foldable electronic display via which you can communicate, download the latest news, watch TV and store hundreds of your favourite books, from novels to high quality photography collections. That’s something I could get used to. But I’m not sure it will arrive as a commercial proposition in my lifetime.

Hamish M.