Over at Forbes.com, speculation has been raised that the iPhone already has a larger number of ebook readers (people that is, not apps) than Amazon has sold Kindles… this is based on 390,000 downloads of an app called Stanza.
cover flow on your bookshelf?
Interestingly, this far outpaces the eReader software I’ve been using. I can’t see figures for it, but I believe the number to be around 1/3 of that CORRECTION: about the same (see comment below). I suspect this difference in take-up relates to the choice of ‘free’ books available on Stanza rather than offering access to a paid-for store with a broader range of titles. I will watch with interest to find out if the 390,000 who have tried Stanza stick around with it.
What it certainly reinforces for me is that, as discussed earlier on Sandlines, the future of ebooks is with devices you already carry, not new stand alone devices.
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eReader has had hundreds of thousands of downloads of our iphone application so I am unsure where you are getting your figures. Stanza was released later than eReader and so recent download figures from apple show it as “leading”, but the totals are about the same.
I’m delighted to hear it, Steve – and happily stand corrected. I’m a huge fan of Fictionwise, having been a member for several years (per my earlier post).
For the record, my belief is that for actual readership (rather than app downloads) I firmly believe you guys will win – be it iPhone, windows mobile or whatever.
My daughter is using Stanza – she’s downloaded all the books from her International Baccalaureate reading list onto her iPod Touch, so always has them at her fingertips.
Cool.