Another break for e-books: Big spike in iPod Touch sales
“The massive boost in App Store sales appears to be from a large influx of iPod Touch users. Amazon lists the 8GB and 16GB iPod Touch as the best selling MP3 players despite their relatively higher cost.” - MacRumors.com item.
The TeleRead take: Another obvious positive for e-books. The more iPod Touches out there, the more potential homes for copies of Stanza, eReader and the rest. Own a Touch? 
Are you as enthusiastic about the Touch as an e-reader as I am? What kinds of books are you reading on it? The Touch is hardly optimized for books with large, extra-detailed illustrations, but it’s oh so fitting for recreational reading. Although I buy few books in DRM—I want to own them for real—I couldn’t resist an eReader-format edition of Revolutionary Road, which I bought at Books On Board for about $10. A great read in Stanza on the Touch, not just on paper. I used Stanza’s desktop app to bring Road into my Touch via WiFi.
The Touch and the generation gap: Many and probably most older people in their 40s or above might prefer the larger “print” on the Kindle or a Sony Reader. E-readers are like hearing aids. One kind won’t fit all. I’m not recommending the Touch as a universal solution.
And speaking of commercial e-books: Fictionwise’s year-end sale will continue through December 31.
Related: Techmeme roundup on the Touch as a hit.
December 29th, 2008 at 9:54 am
So, the Touch is your new fave ereading gadget?
I can recall posts on how great the PalmTX was…then it was the XO. Were there others as well along the gadget road?
It would be interesting if you’d write up a retrospective on the ereading devices you’ve had, and what made you love (or hate) them, and what drawbacks prompted you to move on to a new gadget.
We can presume that the Touch will likewise be replaced by something better not yet available.
For myself, my original ereading device was the Diamond Mako, a rebranded Psion Revo Plus. I read many a gutenberg on it, and it remains my favorite. But I dropped it, which broke something in the complex clamshell-opening mechanism. It began crashing also.
I moved on to a Nokia Internet Tablet 800, which I still like (though not as much as the Mako) but is only really good to read using FBReader. But whenever I find a gutenberg (or even Munsey’s) book with scannos or other errors, I feel the irresistible urge to correct them — FBReader doesn’t handle editing.
Of late I’ve been using a Toshiba TabletPC in slate-mode, its 14″ screen in portrait orientation. Works excellently on gutenberg text editions. I launch jEdit which keeps several texts in memory, and recalls my place on the current book. Right now I’m in Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch’s short stories.
December 29th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Many thanks,Pond. I totally agree, though I still like the Palm as well. I’ll follow up with the post you suggested. Jog me via email if I don’t. David
December 29th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Judging from search traffic that leads people to my blog, I’d say for every one Sony Reader, *ten* iPod Touch/iPhones were gotten for Xmas.
That might be a good way for a math geek to suss out Reader holiday sales figures.
December 30th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
I switched from the Palm TX to the Touch in September. The Palm was terrific, the Touch is perfect. I’m reading on it every second I’m not doing something else. I’m tickled that the NY Times published my Letter to the Editor in response to their 12/24 front page article about ebooks:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/opinion/l30ebook.html. The tipping point for ebooks is now.