New website defies Kindle and Sony reader by letting people read on phones

This week a new website was introduced to let mobile phone users read stories every day for free. Some observers view the move as a challenge to digital reading devices such as Amazon's Kindle. Amazon.com and Sony have developed book-sized devices designed exclusively to read while other companies focused on creating gadgets that allow people to read in addition to a number of other functions including phone calling.

Created by Dan Sinker, who teaches journalism at Columbia College Chicago, CellStories.net is not limited to any particular gadget and is designed to be as simple as possible to work on any handheld mobile device with Web access.

"Anyone that thinks something like the Sony Reader or the Kindle is a device that's going to be around in even three years is delusional," Sinker told Reuters. "We're past the point where people say 'I want one device to do one thing.' "

"CellStories isn't the thing that replaces (the Kindle) but ... the question of how do we read on computing devices was answered when phones like the iPhone came out," he said.

The content will include short stories, personal essays, narrative journalism and creative nonfiction, with most pieces around 1,500 to 2,000 words, or a 10- to 15-minute read.