I missed this Associated Press article about cell phone fiction when it came out a few days ago. Like other articles on the topic, it plays up the growing popularity of cell phone books in Japan, mentioning the popularity of the novel Deep Love among teenage girls. (See also Brian Ashcraft’s interview of Deep Love author Yoshi.) AP also points to the Random House’s acquisition of Vocel as a sign of the inevitable rise of this market, despite the fact that Random House Ventures Richard Sarnoff, has said that cell phones are still inadequate for "sustained reading." One company that is trying to cash in is Bandai Networks.
The Tokyo-based wireless service provider offers 150 books on its site, called Bunko Yomihodai,
or All You Can Read Paperbacks. It began the service in 2003 and saw
interest grow last year. There are now about 50,000 subscribers. […] Users can search by author, title and genre, and readers can write
reviews, send fan mail to authors and request what they want to read,
all from their phones.
Technorati Tag(s): books, technology, writing.
Eight Diagrams 