For September, Book-Related Apps Overtook Games On iPhone 96
ruphus13 writes "In a sign that ebooks are rising in popularity, a recent survey by mobile analytics company Flurry revealed that users may be using the iPhone for more intellectual pursuits, and not just the visual sizzle. The 'book-related' apps on the iPhone overtook games in terms of new apps released. According to the post, 'Book-related apps saw an upsurge in launches in September ... So much so that book-related applications overtook games in the App Store as a percentage of all released apps. The trend isn't an aberration. In October, one out of every five new applications launching on the iPhone was a book ... from August 2008 to the same month in 2009, more apps were released in the 'games' category than any other and, as a result, the iPhone (and iPod touch) became a new handheld gaming platform, one that impacted the Nintendo DS. '"
It's easier to produce a 100 book apps (Score:5, Informative)
Looking through those book apps, there are many groups of people who are just taking every out-of-copyright book they can find and turning each into a separate app. In general, the games don't do the same things, hence the lower quantity.
Re:No surprise there... (Score:2, Informative)
Yes, [clickz.com]
there's
always envy [huffingtonpost.com] among the inferior. [cnet.com]
the iPhone is a so-so ebook reader (Score:4, Informative)
I had a go at my sister in law's iPhone over the week-end. The thing certainly is way better then my WinMob 6.1 piece of crap. The user interface in particular is quite good.
I was especially trying to confirm whether the iPhone would work for me as an ebook reader. I'm used to using PDAs, starting with the original Palm Pilot, on to an aging Palm TX. Sadly, the answer is no: the screen is too small for me. I'm hoping to upcoming 5" android phones will be good.. and not TOO big.
BTW, my 2 dislikes about the iPhone;
- the thing is a fingerprint magnet,
- and the "page-preview" in Safari is not kept up to date with the actual page render, so if you want to know if a longish page has finished downloading, you have to actually fully open it, you can't see it from the "tabs" preview.
Re:What's the correlation? (Score:3, Informative)
Would be nice to get the app separate.
There are several free e-book reader apps available for the iPhone that are pretty decent. Most of the stand-alone books have been public domain stuff released by one or two publishers who have pretty much spammed the App Store with them hoping to capitalize on people who aren't aware that much this stuff is available for free. It got so bad at one point that Apple was forced to make a separate category for books so users didn't have to wade through the hundreds of book titles to in order to find the apps they actually want.
Re:not suitable for ebooks (Score:3, Informative)
I've read ebooks on my iPhone. It's not as good as my Kindle, but the books are readable.
Book-Related Apps On iPhone (Score:1, Informative)
Re:not suitable for ebooks (Score:3, Informative)
Maybe yes, maybe no. I just finished reading both Moby Dick and Tale of Two Cities on the iPhone, just to see what the experience was like. Not bad, but certainly not optimal. It's just a little too small to handle comfortably for long periods of time, but I found that it was pretty easy to immerse myself in the books even with the small screen because flipping pages (on Stanza) was so easy. I also found that the reverse screen was quite readable for long periods of time.
I'm still in the market for a dedicated ebook reader (or a decent tablet), but for casual use - or to read on a bus or a plane - it was better than I expected.
YMMV. Past performance not indicative of future gains or losses. Don't read while driving or operating machinery. Do not taunt happy fun ball.
Re:No surprise there... (Score:3, Informative)
Most vendors (outside of the computer industry) also have a satisfaction guarantee, wherein you can return a product if you're not satisfied with it, as long as it's still saleable and within a reasonable time frame. That isn't enshrined anywhere as a right, but it is a privilege that most vendors agree will help improve business over time.
Every game shop I've ever been into has been extremely cagy about even accepting a return of a damaged game – I've opened the box, and seen the serial number, I could be trying to pirate it.
Aren't many apps on the Apple store free, though? On Android, I haven't had to pay for a single app I've downloaded... they've all been free (as in beer). Some of them have been trialware where you get to try an app out and decide whether to pay for the upgrade, keep the crippled version, or delete it from your phone, but for the most part, everything I've downloaded has been a case of "here you go, have fun".
Yep, last I checked, about 40% of he 100,000 were free, my numbers may be a bit off by now. You're right, on the iPhone too, a decent chunk of the free ones are demos/trialware, I expect that a lot of the paid apps will turn into free apps with paid upgrades inside now that apple have let developers release free apps with in app purchases.