So maybe there’ll be new software in future Nokia 770 images. Are there sufficient justifications to include the FBReader in the base 770?

There are legitimate issues that need to be considered. Is it ready and open-source, and the best reader around? Yes, IMO (some might want to wait for bookmarks and highlighting).

Are there other apps that should come first? Well, that’s a big question. We should definitely get the most useful, wonderful, and necessary apps first. And VoIP and Instant Messaging obviously take precedence over FBReader.

As for the rest . . . various people have suggested other apps. I can see an alarm clock/calendar as being useful — except I use my phone to set alarms and, well, it keeps better time But is one really ready? And should we pick one PIM app to put on the 770 and ignore all the others?

A second browser? Please . . . one (Opera) or another (GPE-mini-browser or MANaOS), but not two (or three). Same for Evince and XPDF.

Business apps? I guess by that I mean AbiWord and Gnumeric. Me, I say leave those to individuals who need them. I don’t, yet. They’re not something my wife is going to use (when she gets the 770 as her Christmas/birthday present).

More games? Well, a few. Crazy Parking, BattleGweled. A great solitaire, if there is one. These fit the kids, who’ve demanded their own 770 screen time, and a tiny bit more variety might be good. Some people swear by MineSweeper. Me, I’m waiting for a two-person version of Battleship. Playing that with my son on two 770 — now that will be cool. (Operative word: waiting. Not in line for consideration here.)

But you know what? This list is straying fairly far from Nokia’s vision of this device and their vision of themselves as a “communications” company. As I noted before, Nokia wants to provide access to the “other” type of communication — voice being first. if you want to take the data that’s on the web and access it, you have a pretty good picture of the 770’s defining role — websites, blogs, rss feeds, email, VoIP and IM coming, internet radio, music and video, images. Even PDFs.

About the only thing missing from this list that you might encounter on a webpage or in a Google search is a slideshow viewer that accepts Powerpoint presentations. That I think is more mainstream than Word compatability for someone consuming information. Not in line yet (is it on the horizon even?).

And, then, of course, there are e-books.

We have huge repositories of essential data we need so much that we aggregate the different pieces into warehouses and let anyone access the whole thing for free — it’s so critical we started doing this even before the web. Libraries we call these data repositories. They house books and people are trained to use them, from their first day in school.

And, really, people like to access information in book form. The depth of information, the amount in a single package, these are levels that have been set over hundreds of years. They’re the depth and length people feel comfortable with. Websites, blogs and such, are pretty confusing because you never know how much is there. Start reading a labyrinth like Paul Ford’s Ftrain, and you may never know how much of it you’ve seen. And how far back do you read in a blog? There’s no beginning in a blog.

And, of course, people like entertainment in book form. Sure we go to the movies, but when how many books do you give as Christmas/Hanukkah presents and how many movie tickets? If books didn’t do the job, people would be giving lots more ties and board games to adults, don’t you think?

Oh, you say, they’re not giving e-books as presents, are they. Rhetorical question, since we all know the answer to that. No, they’re not.

I think I’ll go into all the reasons for that in a succeeding post. There’s a whole set of issues that have stalled the e-book market — publishers’ concerns, DRM (digital restrictions management), multiple formats, expensive or awful e-book reading devices — that deserves exploration at length (hey, my specialty).

For now, let’s say it’s not for want of demand or desire. That’s what I think, and I’ll provide the justifications for my opinion then. But a critical aspect to consider is how we will use the 770 when we are forced offline. And an e-book reader is made for that.

Look for Part II later in the week.

If you like the idea of FBReader being included with other software on the Nokia 770, please add a comment to this blog post. If you have really well-grounded ideas for competing software, do add your comment as well.