Kindle vs. iPhone: Is Apple Setting Its Eyes on the Amazon Kindle?

For those considering an ebook reader such as the red-hot Amazon Kindle, a main stumbling block (besides it always being out of stock) is that you’re paying a lot of money for a device that basically does one thing: allow you to read books.

Contrast the Kindle’s capabilities to the iPhone and it’s no contest. For about the same money you spend on the Kindle, the iPhone has numerous functions and has revolutionized how we communicate and entertain ourselves when we’re on the go!

It would seem to be a no-brainer then that reading ebooks on the iPhone would be a natural extension of its capabilities. It does telephony, audio, and video so using it as a reading device seems simple enough. The reason the iPhone hasn’t been a major player in the ebook reader marketplace is due to its display.

The obvious differences between the iPhone display and the Kindle is the size. With the Kindle you get a display that is six inches diagonal while the iPhone is about half that – 3.5 inches. Have you ever tried reading a book on a 3.5 inch display? You’ll go nuts after about three pages!

The other major difference, and the more important one, is the type of display that is used in these devices. The Kindle’s display doesn’t emit light like the iPhone. It uses e-Ink technology to display text. I won’t bore you with the technical details but basically what this technology does is produce a display that is like reading text on paper. It’s “relaxing” to the eyes so there is no eye strain like there is when reading text on the iPhone or your computer screen.

It is for these two reasons – display size and display technology – that the iPhone may never be a real contender with dedicated ebook readers like the Amazon Kindle. However, Apple is going to try and given the popularity of the iPhone and iPod Touch they may give this reading device a run for its money sooner than later and here’s why…

Major publishers Houghton Mifflin, Simon & Schuster, Random House, Hachette and Penguin Group USA have signed deals with ScrollMotion, a New York mobile application developer. ScrollMotion is also in talks with many other publishers. With these deals, ScrollMotion will produce newly released and best-selling ebooks as applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. In short, Apple is quickly becoming an ebook vendor not unlike Amazon’s Kindle Store.

ScrollMotion isn’t the first ebook reader in the iTunes App Store. Stanza is one that has been popular especially for classics. What makes ScrollMotion unique from Stanza and other ebook reader apps is that stand-alone and newer in copyright titles and best-selling novels will be available. And for Apple, it puts them directly into the ebook business since they pick up a certain percentage of each sale since the books packaged using the ScrollMotion app are wrapped in the Fairplay iTunes DRM.

The big question is, will consumers be willing to read books on iPhone’s and iPod Touch’s small display? These devices are great to read the occasional newspaper article but I’m not so sure consumers will be comfortable using them to read full length novels. I guess only time will tell how the great “Kindle vs iPhone battle” unfolds.

Source: The New Zealand Herald