The New York Times reports on the rise of smartphones as reading devices, despite the existence of dedicated reading devices like the Kindle.

At least half of my reading now takes place on my iPhone, mostly within Stanza (an eBook-reading application) or Instapaper (a wonderful app for saving and reading long articles found on the Web). Which is why I was surprised to see this quote from an Amazon exec:

But in the meantime, Amazon executives say that the limitations of the Kindle actually make it more attractive for reading.

“The Kindle is for people who love to read,” Mr. Freed of Amazon said. “People use phones for lots of things. Most often they use them to make phone calls. Second most often, they use them to send text messages or e-mail. Way down on the list, there’s reading.”

Perhaps I’m strange, but my habits are the exact opposite. I use my phone first for reading, second for email, and third for music listening. Phone calls are a distant fourth. In fact, the phone part of the iPhone is my least favorite function. All it ever does is interrupt my use of the device for other things.

Related: Laptops and smartphones give rise to watching porn in public.