Friday, November 09, 2007

iPhone Exuberance

Today is the day the iPhone launches in the UK. From PersonaNonData and the Bookseller we learn that HarperCollins UK is celebrating with a customised service which allows iPhone users to sample digital books on the iPhone.

The iPhone is going to be really big. But the form factor is bound to evolve sooner than you can say "Steve Jobs at MacWorld Expo". We would lay long odds that Apple are right now toying with designs for a larger format iPhone which will be great for watching films and reading whole pages from newspapers and books. And there are going to be lots of competitive variants and some of them are going to be really successful. So I am perplexed by the business logic of creating a special version of a digital book platform to cope with the iPhone, or the next big consumer device. If an application runs on the web it should run on any web-enabled device. No further development is required. End of story.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Once again, I feel in full agreement with you.

The special version for iPhone, accessed through Safari, doesn't work on my iPod Touch. A very disappointing experience! Quite antagonistic with the concept of the web as a ubiquitous medium.

When I enter a library or a bookshop to get a book, I don't expect to be asked first "How will you read it?".