Cell phones now able to display electronic books

Cell phones aren't just getting smart. They're turning into bookworms.

From their humble start as a simple phone that you could carry in your pocket, mobile phones have added a raft of features, such as the ability to take photos, shoot video, receive and send e-mail, and search the Internet.

Now, cell phones are in the process of adding another feature: the capability of displaying electronic versions of books.

With their small screens, cell phones might not spring to mind as a suitable medium for reading lengthy stretches of text.

And a much ballyhooed e-book revolution during the dot-com era in the late 1990s and early 2000s fizzled, leading many in publishing to doubt whether books would ever escape the bounds of paper.

But that hasn't stopped such publishers as Houghton Mifflin, Simon and Schuster and Avalon Travel from making deals with specialty firms to produce mobile versions of some of their titles.

In one of the most recent deals, Boston-based Houghton Mifflin, which traces its origins back to 1832, agreed to work with Mobifusion, a Silicon Valley firm, to make some of the publisher's reference and children's books available in mobile versions.

One of the first titles that they hope to have out by the end of the year is "Fast Food My Way" by celebrity chef Jacques Pepin.

The cell-phone version will probably cost $30 - the same as the print version.

"You could be at Dean and Deluca in New York and look up the recipe for what you're going to make for dinner that night," said Houghton Mifflin's David Langevin, referring to the gourmet food store.

"So with your phone, you know what to shop for. That seems a lot more functional than the print book."

Last week, Harpercollins UK announced a deal with Apple to make excerpts of the publisher's books available on Apple's iPhone for free in Britain.

In addition, the phone will carry author interviews and audio clips of writers reading from their work.

Part of the reasoning behind such deals is that mobile versions of popular titles may help sell more printed books.

When you get home from the gourmet store with your chanterelle mushrooms and heirloom tomatoes, would you rather read one of Pepin's recipes from a cell-phone screen or from a large printed page, with a big color photo to show how the dish should look?

But another reason for the deals speaks to the uncertainty of the Internet age: nobody knows for sure what format of electronic reading will prove to be the ultimate winner, or whether there will be an ultimate winner.

So why not hedge your bets and try cell-phone books as well as more conventional electronic books intended for bigger screens?

"We're really aiming to be agnostic and ubiquitous," said Claire Israel, director of digital content at Simon and Schuster, which is planning to make some consumer reference material, such as buying guides, available on cell phones, possibly by the end of the year.

"In terms of format, we're just trying to push this content out there. I'm very comfortable with letting the consumer make the choice."

Source: http://media.www.dailyvidette.com/media/storage/paper420/news/2007/12/05/Features/Cell-Phones.Now.Able.To.Display.Electronic.Books-3132556-page2.shtml
http://media.www.dailyvidette.com/media/storage/paper420/news/2007/12/05/Features/Cell-Phones.Now.Able.To.Display.Electronic.Books-3132556.shtml