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Book publisher HarperCollins has launched Browse Inside for the Apple iPhone in the hope Europe will mirror the surge in e-book sales witnessed in Japan.

Browse Inside, which digitally replicates the experience of browsing a book prior to purchasing, has thousands of titles available.

For the pilot mobile version, the publisher has made 14 books available, including Winning by Jack and Suzy Welch, The Burnt House by Faye Kellerman, and Now and Forever by Ray Bradbury.

E-books have not yet taken off in North America or Europe, but they are big business in Japan, where the sale of e-books for mobile phones grew 331% from 1.6bn yen (£6.98m) in 2005 to 6.9bn yen (£30.09m) in 2006, according to the Digital Content Association of Japan.

However, some companies are looking to make e-books mainstream farther afield. Amazon will launch its Kindle reader device in the US in October for between £200 ($400) and £250, while Google plans to charge for access to digital books in its database on a revenue share scheme with publishers from the autumn.