Kindle e-books for the iPhone

Posted March 7, 2009
Filed under: Cellular / Mobile Phones | Tags: Amazon Kindle, Apple iPhone, e-books, New Rules of Marketing |

I just purchased my first e-book for the Kindle application on the iPhone. I purchased The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott.

I actually purchased it a couple days ago, but wanted to wait until I had some “hands on” time with the application before blogging about it. I wondered how it would compare to a traditonal printed book.

The price tag of each e-book is definitely attractive – most available titles are $9.99, which is much less than I usually pay for a printed copy. However, I still prefer a paper book – something that I can underline, highlight, dog ear the pages, and write notes in the margin. It is through this process that I feel I truely own the content.

As far as new technical features of such e-books, there is some interactivity between the actual Kindle device and the iPhone. They apparently sync including last page read, bookmarks, etc.

To me, the fact that it functions on the Kindle device as well as the iPhone is a real value-add. It also places the Kindle squarely in the lead of e-book readers, should I ever buy one.

There are some features in the application that seem to be missing (or I haven’t played with it enough). Namely, the multitouch features the iPhone is famous for, vertically scrolling text at a configurable pace, etc. However, I believe that like most iPhone apps, this one will receive multiple updates adding new functionality and making the application even more stable and user-friendly.

Lastly, if you are looking for more information on the subject, here is some good analysis on Kindle for the iPhone provided by Van Baker of Gartner.

1 comment so far

Keith Parsons on March 22, 2009

I’ve been a Kindle reader ever since the first Kindle shipped. I love it!

I try to read a book a week, sometimes just for relaxation, and sometimes for learning. The Kindle has made this so much easier.

Now I have a Kindle 2 (the old 1 is now a ‘hand-me-down’) as well as the Kindle reader on my iPhone.

I like the iPhone’s backlit screen for reading in the dark, but it is a pretty small screen and it takes lots of ‘touches’ to continually swipe the screen (also needs two hands, one to hold and one to swipe)

The Kindle 2 is slimmer than the iPhone, but a much larger screen. You don’t have to turn the pages so often, and there is a nice button right under your thumb that allows a one-handed operation. (and the battery life is measured in days not hours)

Thanks for the recommendation on the David Meerman Scott book. I just finished it to night. Much food for thought…

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