During the Chinese New Year holiday I arranged to meet a friend for lunch near Taipei MRT Zhongxiao-Dunhua Station. We were chatting about how the jewelry magazine she runs can transform and I gave her a brief introduction to the current state of digital reading and publishing for reference. Of all the digital reading modes, she was most interested in cell phone reading.

I used to think that cell phones weren’t suitable for use as reading tools because of their small size and even smaller screen. However, my friend brought out an Apple iPhone from her handbag. Users can use this phone to connect to the Internet and also visit North American business websites. I used her phone to explore a world unknown to me.   
Using the phone I could see the latest gold, silver and precious stone prices and visit the webpages of famous jewelry stores to view their latest styles. I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the screen. The iPhone has a touch control screen and it doesn’t need a keyboard, allowing the screen to be much larger than I imagined and resolution much higher than a laptop or desktop PC. This makes it ideal for viewing jewelry information because it displays the jewelry to optimum effect.

A while back I viewed a cell phone Internet book store introduced by a telecom operator and my conclusion then was “Cell phone reading is suitable for relatively simple information about where to go to play, eat and drink but not so suitable for reading complex information.” My friend’s magazine has more words than the other two main jewelry magazines published in Taiwan. Would people be willing to use their cell phone to read so many words?
My friend isn’t worried about this. She believes in the future information society in which ever second will count this kind of magazine should be disseminated on the cell phone platform. Busy business people can’t always wait until they are in their study or office to obtain the knowledge they need, they can take advantage of the free time they have when commuting to work or taking a flight!

I reluctantly accepted her view. Then, as I looked up I saw the young couple at the table next to us were, oblivious to all around them, reading a blog together, pictures and text on a large touch screen cell phone. I also saw a “digital times” cell phone version appear on the screen, the text clear an easy to read. I think there is no reason for readers who just want to acquire information rather than to slowly savor a traditional reading experience to find fault with cell phone reading.

What is the nature of reading? How much will digitization change human reading behavior?  These aren’t questions that are easy to answer, however in a café in fashionable eastern Taipei I have already seen how the digital tide is changing reading behavior.