Stanza, iPhone’s free e-book reader application, has been downloaded more than 395,000 times and is installed at an average rate of about 5,000 copies a day, according to the app's creator Lexcycle.
This number is greater than a recent Citigroup estimate of 380,000 Kindles that it predicts Amazon will sell in 2008, reports Forbes.
The iPhone’s screen is obviously smaller than the Kindle and doesn’t use E-Ink, but both offer instant downloads. Then there is the whole battery life issue.
And Stanza only offers books in the public domain, unlike the wide variety of reading matter available via the Kindle, including newspapers, magazines and bestsellers.
Things could change in 2009, however, if Lexcycle can finalize some deals with publishing companies that it says are currently in the works.
"Once we've got that kind of deal done," says Lexcycle's chief executive, Marc Prud'hommeaux, "you'll be able to do everything on the iPhone that you can now do on the Kindle: browse, purchase, download and read a book without interacting with your computer in any way."
IPhone Steals Lead Over Kindle [Forbes]
