E-books tip up, but not for e-readers

A LONDON PUBLISHING COMPANY has said the future of e-books is in mobiles rather than e-readers.

Reuters reported that Ether Books, launching at the London Book Fair today, said it is placing its bets mobile phones as the best devices for its e-books. The company has developed an application for the Iphone and Ipod Touch with essays, poetry and authors like Louis de Bernieres in its catalogue.

There's obviously a far bigger installed base of mobile users, so it could simply be a matter of economics. As praised as Sony's E-reader, Amazons' Kindle and Apple's Ipad are, there simply aren't enough of those devices out there to justify using them as a sole revenue stream.

But Ether Books believes it's more than a cash issue, because it thinks that users prefer to use something they're already familiar with.

"The tech press may be slavering over the Ipad, Kindle and Sony Ereader as traditional publishers leap over themselves to expand their e-book offerings," Ether Books digital director Maureen Scott told Reuters.

"But at Ether Books we've made the decision to go straight to distributing short works via our Iphone app to devices people already own, are familiar with and are happy to use when they have 10-15 minutes to spare."

Ether Books didn't respond to our request for comment. That's a shame because we wanted to know if it intends to launch an Ipad app or support e-readers, if its e-publishing business takes off. µ