cell_phone_with_pic A MobileRead forumgoer reports that the latest Project Gutenberg newsletter contains an announcement of a new Project Gutenberg mobile website, m.gutenberg.org. The site is to be optimized not just for iPhones, but for any mobile phone including browsing-enabled dumbphones. Writes Gutenberg:

There are 4.5 billion such devices in the world, versus only 1.15 billion computers, and more and more readers, in spite of what the pundits say, are surfing, reading, and everything else on such mobile devices.

We’ve previously covered a couple of stories—earlier this year, and last year—on the possibility of using non-smart cell phones as e-book devices. Even back in 2006, some TeleRead readers noted it was possible.

In parts of the developing world, such as Africa, cell phones are already used for banking and other services considered to be the provenance of the computer elsewhere. It’s good to see the preeminent public domain e-book site in the world stepping up to help meet their e-book needs.

1 COMMENT

  1. Mobile phones play important role in the evolution of reading. They are a first device to make people actually try reading an e-book. No extra cost is needed. You just download an app or use a browser.
    Since they recognize all the merits of an electronic book, they’ll turn to bigger devices.
    This doesn’t mean when I get a tablet I’ll stop reading on a cellphone. No. With books going to cloud we’ll really appreciate the comfort of accessing our personal libraries from a couple of devices.
    When it comes to decisions it’s more about tablet vs eReader fight. Cellphones? We have them always with us. It would be just stupid not to add an e-reading capability.

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