Now, read novels, comics on your mobile

Book loving mobile phone addicts now have a reason to smile, as novels and even comic books are being made available for reading on cell phones.

Already a big hit in Japan and China, momics (mobile comics) as they are called, are all set to capture the Indian market. On an experimental basis mobile content provider mobile2win has already rolled out Amar Chitra Katha momics, which the company claims has been successful.

"With over 96 million GSM subscribers alone, the market for mobile comics, novels and books is very huge," Rajiv Hiranandani, said. "In Japan and Korea, entire books are available on mobile, but in India they are still to pick up in a very big way."

Last year, we introduced comics in China, and they were a huge success. The market there is very big, with over 400 million subscribers, Hiranandani said.

"In India, we plan to bring them out shortly first in English and in another 5-6 months in Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati and Telugu," he added.

Meanwhile, the first Indian mobile novel Neelakannukal (Blue Eyes) has been written in Malayalam and distributed free to 600 mobile users. The writer is now in talks with cellular operators for making it available on demand.