Reading On A Smartphone Is Good Enough?

The first thing I did this morning after I woke up was to reach for my G1 and see what e-mails I got while I was in a happy place with three beautiful...ah, too much details.  So I reached for my G1 to catch up on e-mails and scanned the headlines.  Then I took my toast, coffee, and  G1 out to the backyard to enjoy the day before I go to work.

But this act of taking out your mobile device to catch up on news, reading the latest Tweets or Facebook updates, or ereading is taking place all over the world that many mobile warriors do many times through out the day.  In lecture halls, taxi rides, waiting in line for a Starbucks latte, and many countless instances.

And that’s exactly the point that this NY Times article is talking about.  We can do so much on our Blackberries, G1s, and iPhones, having a secondary device dedicated to a specific function, in this instance, a Kindle, is not necessarily for a lot of mobile users.

So the question NYT asked, a valid one, is if the future of reading lies with Kindle-like devices, including the forthcoming Nook from Barnes and Noble, or a mobile multi-purpose device like the iPhone with its 3” screen?

More importantly, I think it’s accessing the information that is the main issue here.  How easily accessible to books and news can an iPhone be and how it is presented to readers.

Let’s examine the issue and focus on just what we can do today.  Also, let’s just narrow that down a bit more and focus on our behaviors.  When I woke up and started having breakfast, it’s my G1 I reached for.  When I get my Nook in a month or so, I might reach for it when I want to read a book.  Makes sense right?  Bigger screen, save battery life on my G1.

When I leave for work or to run an errand, I will take my iPhone but I might take my Nook as well.  If I’m waiting in line at the post office or the supermarket, it’s more convenient to use my iPhone to do any reading.  If I was to go a coffee house where I might sit down for any length of time, I might use the Nook.

But I certainly won’t cry over it if I had to read on my iPhone instead.  I reckon that this is probably what a lot of people would do anyway, forgoing a dedicated ebook reader completely.

Now, while we were just talking about our behaviors, technology can change that. So, what will technical advances will alter how we read and what we use to read books?

That’s the key question that has many baffled.  It is whatever technology that can best duplicate the experience of reading a real newspaper or book.  It must also make it easy for people to work beyond just reading.

One area where the NY Times post doesn’t address is the education sector.  Kindle had trial runs at some universities and failed miserably.  Why is that?  Simple.  It’s just a device that fits textbooks inside.  Some simple notes can be taken with it but not much more.  For the ereader to succeed in the educational environment, it has to augment and facilitate the learning process.  Oh, let’s not forget that the Kindle’s e-ink display isn’t in color.

Here’s how I think the future will unfold.

• Books aren’t going anyway.  There’s too much of us traditional literalists for that to happen.
• Newspaper and magazines outfits will continue to evolve.  Print will shrink and turn up on devices like Apple’s forthcoming iTablet or mobile devices.  
• People will rediscover reading on their mobile phones.  Whether it’s on a 2” or 3” screen, enough young people growing up with smartphones will create a market force demanding more literary materials to be used on their devices.
• eReaders like the Nook will continue to have its audience and will be able to do more than reading in order to survive.  The Nook already runs on Android.  It’ll be a shame if it doesn’t access Google apps.

At the end of the day, it’s about convenience.  It’s convenient to use the multi-purpose device in your pocket.  And when it’s convenient to do so, people will read a real book or on their dedicated ereader.

More at NY Times.