Craig Froehle: Smartphone e-book reader doesn’t make sense for PDM
Will Palm Digital Media do a Smartphone reader for e-books? On Monday I raised the possibility that commercial rivalries with Microsoft might get in the way–another argument for a Universal Consumer Format.
Without discussing the UCF issue, Craig Froehle, a University of Cincinnati professor, who founded the company that became Memoware, kindly shared his own thoughts on Palm and SmartPhones after seeing my Saturday mention of the topic. He himself said Palm-Microsoft rivalries would get in the way.
At the same time, he disagrees with me about phones’ potential for e-book reading. I think that screens are already sufficient for addicts who need serious e-book fixes, and Mobipocket feels likewise. Craig isn’t so sure. And now, here’s Craig’s full letter:
A point of clarification on your story.There’s insufficient motivation for anyone to generate a Palm Digital Media reader for Microsoft Smartphones.
Palm Digital Media is now owned by PalmGear HQ, a software archive company that focuses *exclusively* on Palm OS devices. Plus, Palm OS has its own crop of “smartphones” (e.g. Treo 600, Kyocera 7135, Samsung SGH-i500, etc.). So, the company that controls Palm Digital Media’s format and reader apps isn’t likely to support a competitor’s platform. Granted, they might sell a few more ebooks, but I doubt that many more. Most smartphones have low-res screens, making the reading experience mediocre at best. Plus, folks haven’t exactly adopted PDA ebook reading overwhelmingly…I cant imagine they will be more receptive to using their phones for that task (especially when battery life is already a major concern with phones).
Also, PalmGear isn’t that big a company, so it’s unlikely that it has the $$ or staff just waiting around ready to be put towards developing an MS Smartphone-compatible reader.
Besides, isn’t Microsoft’s big claim that you write an app once and it works on all the various Windows Mobile devices? Doesn’t seem very smart for a company that depends on the success of Palm OS to go around supporting products from the behemoth from Redmond.
Anyway, interesting article, but I think it overlooks some of the “market realities” involved.
Further thoughts from me: While tablets are better than PDAs for e-books in many cases, this isn’t universally true. On the go, I much prefer a more compact machine like my Dell Axim. Of course, one of the biggest negative of PDAs is that they’re not treated as true consumer items, but rather require you to deal not only with the technology but also with absolute morons on the business side. See the above item.
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