The Official Goodreads iPhone App!

I'm very pleased to be able to officially announce that Goodreads now has an iPhone app, which is available in the Apple app store.

And, very excitingly, Apple was kind enough to notice and feature it, causing it to shoot to the top of the free books category (for the moment anyways)!

We built the app because many of our members have asked for an iPhone app, and because we think it will be very useful for Goodreads members on the go.

Also, mobile statistics on the growth of the iPhone in the US alone show it to be one of the fastest growing adoptions of a new device ever, so we think even more people will be able to take advantage of our app in the years to come.

Here is a full list of features the app offers:

* Browse your shelves! Next time you are in the library or bookstore, your to-read list will be handy.
* Add status updates and reviews of books you are reading.
* See book reviews and updates from your friends, and comment on them.
* Explore your friends shelves
* Explore some of popular book lists
* View literary events near you

I've been using the app for the last month and have to say I think it's pretty slick. There are still a few features I've had to go to our mobile site for (like groups), and we hope to add those in the coming months.

You may notice that on the app some books appear without cover images or descriptions or other pieces of data that appear on the site. This is because, as some of you may remember, Goodreads uses Amazon book meta-data, and Amazon's terms of service doesn't allow iPhone apps. Thus we have built this app with a completely separate source of book meta-data. We are working on filling in these holes, and have already made great progress there.

If you have an iPhone or an iPod touch, please give the app a go - and don't forget to give it an (appropriately) high rating!

If you have any feedback or thoughts on the app, please post them in the comments or in the Feedback Group thread.

Update: Just for clarity as people have asked in the comments, we do have a decent mobile site that should work on any phone with a browser. And we plan to build an Android app next. If anyone knows a good Android developer let us know!