Wednesday, 02 September 2009 02:03Written by Michael Fletcher
Sony has launched the opening salvo in what promises to be an intriguing war for Digital Reader Dominance. Sony's Digital book reader will support the EPUB publishing standard. EPUB is "(the)Publishing Forum's (IDPF) XML-based standard format for reflowable digital books and publications. EPUB has gained acceptance among major trade book publishers with dozens of publishers already producing the majority of their eBooks using the standard" from PR-Canada.net
Kindle Exclusivity
In Addition to adopting EPUB the Sony Digital Book Reader will support PDF. Both EPUB and PDF have DRM and there will be no compromise on security through this adoption. This will however be a hammer blow to Amazon who have thus far looked to segment the market through the use of a propriety file standard. The mobipocket reader format currently used means books bought for the KIndle can only be read on the Kindle or another reader licensed for the mobipocket format.
Do not pass go do not collect $300
This was a smart attempt by the Kindle manufacturers to stop readers with a wandering eye migration to another reader. It also gives Amazon some control over the book sales side as generic open format books cannot be sold for the Kindle unit. In the face of all of this Sony has jumped in with it's Digital Book Reader.
Battle stations Everyone
This move will no doubt encourage competition in the market and put the power back in the hands of the consumer as there are already a number of different store available who stock open format books, not least of which Google's library of 1 million public domain EPUB books.
I wait in silent anticipation for this war between Amazon's kindle and the Sony Digital book reader to begin in earnest and perhaps for once us consumers will win.
Subscribe to this comment's feed
