E-reader phone app to reach Africans SEATTLE, April 4 (UPI) -- The literary non-profit group Worldreader says it is releasing an e-reading app designed for basic mobile phones to reach more readers in Africa. Worldreader, which has focused on distributing Kindles to classrooms in sub-Saharan Africa, said making e-books available on cellphones could bring them to a much wider group of readers since in many African countries 80 percent of the population own a cellphone. Worldreader's app, now in beta, uses "cloud-based data compression technology to enable any Java-enabled 'feature' phone (non-smartphone) to download e-books and access news Web sites and Facebook over an ordinary mobile signal," The Bookseller reported. Worldreader is working with international and local African publishers to make e-books available for its e-reader program and for the app, and also offers public-domain books, paidcontent.org reported. "Yes, this is a leap of faith for publishers, giving away some of their content for free," Elizabeth Wood, Worldreader's director of digital publishing, said. But once you give these kids in the developing world the tools and hook these kids on books, they will become book buyers.