What impact will mobile devices have on the future of publishing?

Another question from an interview I gave to an Emerson graduate student:

Question: What impact do you think mobile devices, such as cell phones, BlackBerries, and the Kindle, will have on the future of publishing?

My answer:

Mobile devices are clearly the future, and add fuel to the bonfire of long-form news content. People are already leaning to short-form content thanks to Digg and information overload, and the mobile trend fits right into this. No one wants to read a 2000-word feature on their iPhone, and will even click off an 800-word article if it takes too long to scroll through or breaks to a second page.

I have already started instructing my writers to write short-form content that is under 400 words and concentrates on one or two specific issues, as opposed to attempting to summarize the whole story. Background can be linked off. It's perfect for readers' shorter attention spans and [the formats on] mobile devices.

I have to admit that I didn't fully answer his question -- I was thinking more of news and magazine content as opposed to books. While there is a trend toward shorter news/features/commentary on the Web and on mobile devices, I am not sure how things will pan out in the book world. And despite the attraction of short-form content, people still love stories, and it will be interesting to see where the Kindle/e-book experimentation leads.