Well, darnit if the bleeding edge consumers in Japan aren’t at it again. Though far behind ringtones in terms of a developed market (which itself is hardly a developed market), cell phone literature is gaining ground. To me, the interesting thing about this isn’t so much that people are paying to do it. It’s some of the circumstances under which the behavior makes sense.

I.e., as the AP story points out, times you might not want people to know what you’re reading, like a sex manual or self-help book. Or times when a book, simple as it is, won’t work - since, after all, a book can’t generate it’s own light (although I don’t know abou that one, since many cell phone screens are so bright they might well wake a partner or child. But, arguably less than a lamp). Or when the nature of the content lends itself to soundbite-like serial reading, such as in pulp or horror stories.

If there is any larger point here, it’s linked to communicating usability, a Cofactors and Catalyst preoccupation. It’ll be a while before this trend surfaces at the mainstream level, if ever. But when it does, and the hardware and software is optimized for this activity, it will be an interesting case study in how well companies and products market a specific interface use.

JF

This entry was posted on Monday, March 21st, 2005 at 4:57 pm and is filed under General, Usability, Communicating Usability, E-commerce, Social Networking, Interaction Strategy.