Jeff Bennett's Blog

Last week we blogged right here on JeffBennett.Org that Amazon was going to unveil the Kindle2 on February 9, 2009.  As we approach the big date chatter is escalating about Kindle2, but at the same time chatter has also started to escalate about bigger concepts for eBooks.

First, Amazon has has announced it will be releasing Kindle books for delivery on cell phones.

Second, Google’s announcement that the 1.5 million public domain books available on its Google Book Search offering will soon be available (free, of course) via a new cell phone application.

I thought Kindle2 was big news in and of itself, but these other two are really big.  The install base of cell phones, and rapidly expanding “smart phone” base that include iPhones, are potentially good platforms for eBooks.

Personally, I love my iPhone and Kindle.  I like how I can replicate reading a book on the Kindle and most of my friends who have them feel the same way.  But you know reading is not what it used to be, so maybe the cell phone app creates a whole new model for reading.

Stay tuned for the announcements on Monday and what comes next.