Cyber Monday Nintendo DS - yet another eBook platform in the making?

TeleRead blog has a veritable splurge of news and rumor or speculation on the Nintendo DS (Lite) as a possible eBook reading platform. Here are the main links if you want to read more:-

• ‘Nintendo lining up DSphone’—with e-book apps as options?

• Will the next Nintendo DS be a better e-reader?

• E-books for Nintendo Wii and DS—and Sony PS3

• E-books officially on the Nintendo DS?

The DS does have great little screens (note: small!) and a great battery life, touch/stylus screen for page turning and annotation. It can already be used for eBook reading with non-Nintendo expansion cards, micro-SD adapters and cracked firmware and games. Will a official Nintendo push make a difference? Probably.

Note how the DS when showing Japanese eBook content (here) is portrait two-page "book-like" device!

With all the recent news and growth in use of Apple iPhone and iPod Touch as a reading platform, and some previous efforts for Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) are we seeing eBook reading becoming a "functionality" of virtually all computing and consumer electronic devices?


If so, is there a space for a dedicated, or at least optimized, device for reading eBooks - with a specialized display (E-Ink and the like), optimized battery life, and ergonomics optimal for handheld reading in multiple places and while on-the-go?

Off course if technology developments produce displays and devices that don't need to make those trade-off decisions ("Multi-media or eBooks?) then we'll probably see devices with all of these functions.

Amazon is offering a special Cyber-Monday price of just $99 for the Nintendo DS here. See Engadget coverage here. That's a great price! If you consider it a valid eBook reading device then it's the cheapest around I think.

Your thoughts welcome, post a comment.