Mobile phone as a book-writing device
Assuming the gang at Tech Crunch aren’t pulling our collective legs:
In Japan, half of the top ten selling works of fiction in the first six months of 2007 were composed on mobile phones.
Read that again if necessary. Composed on a mobile phone. Not read. Composed. That lends further evidence to my hypothesis that we have no idea how the publishing industry will change in the next [insert unit of time]. Here’s to shattering expectations!
December 9th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
That’s not surprising. Phil Rossi (Crescent) once noted on Twitter that he had written 1,200 words that day on his Treo. When I commented that this left me with no excuse not to write, he replied, “Welcome to the world of Guerilla Writing.”
December 11th, 2007 at 12:19 am
Man… Talk about having thumb-itiest…
They also say, that the personal computer sales are down in Japan, due to the fact that most people are using their phones instead. No surprise that would lead to a book composed on the device. - Question, are most of these things happening on a standard phone dialer?
December 12th, 2007 at 3:41 am
Cells these days are not just your standard flip-phone. They have slide out QWERTY keyboards and are Pocket PC’s.
December 14th, 2007 at 7:07 am
Right, This year I swore off paper braille for good. Now I read books in braille on a custome built pda with a braille display. In January though I’m giving the thing away, or selling it for a rediculously low price, because my new hp I-Paq can connect a braille display via bluetooth. That means I’ll have braille reading and writing functions on a standard pda that fits in my pocket. My brail Reading will then most likely take off in a huge way. I could see myself writing and being creative on this set up no problem.
December 15th, 2007 at 8:58 am
I eagerly await your book Eric.
December 15th, 2007 at 8:59 am
Oh sorry Erik I spelled your name wrong there
December 16th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
1. Most Japanese use phones with standard keyboards. I’m not sure what the breakdown is but WinMobile is still a minor but growing share of the market.
2. I have a Japanese PHS phone with both a keypad and a qwerty keyboard (slideout). I generally write Japanese messages with the keypad and use the slideout keyboard for writing English. Japanese messages on cellphones are similar to IMs on PCs, short, not always written in sentences. Also, there are very powerful front end processors that do a good job of predicting which characters you’re inputting from the keypad. Our family joke is that the front end processor on my phone is better than the one on my Mac.
3. Many Japanese spend over 30 minutes riding on trains daily so that gives plenty of time for writing. Phones are handy because one handed entry while straphanging is easy.
December 17th, 2007 at 5:54 am
Yeah–what Michael says is true.
Certainly not my preferred means of writing…but I’ve come to find that, now more so than ever, there is no perfect, time, place…or even tool when it comes to “composing”. If the inspiration strikes and you’ve got some way of capturing it before it ends up as a stain on the rug, use what you’ve got handy. The muse likes to get it on in the back of your dad’s chevy just as much as she likes to get it on on your office desk or favorite coffee house table w/ laptop.
December 18th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
And I have a hard enough time getting 140 characters out in my tweets — and I’m on a Treo!
E.
January 3rd, 2008 at 3:34 pm
As an aspiring writer, I’ve not even thought of using my cell phone to capture the Lady Muse when she came to pass by. How silly is that ? But not quite surprising as I can spot problems with writing on my computer instantly. I guess I still prefer longhand…
March 13th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
I’m ashamed to say the only thing I write on mine is an occasional shopping list.
June 30th, 2008 at 2:22 am
I can’t see anyone in Western nations waking up tomorrow and seeing mobile phone composed novels on the top seller lists, but usually Japan is years ahead on many tech fronts; mobile phone data services were available and popular in Japan years ago as the rest of us are only now catching up.