As I'm sure most people will be aware Amazon is bringing out a new Kindle. To me it looks pretty good, as did the previous one. For me though the wireless connectivity isn't a killer ap, my Cybook is still fine.

However as I understand Amazon own both the kindle format and Mobipocket format. They push the kindle format, discounting books to push the device and develop a market. Books are available on kindle format before mobipocket, or simply not available on mobipocket. Amazon have an exclusive with Stephen King (I believe I read?) for the Kindle.

Is the future of Mobipocket going to be a more expensive, patchy, later format than Kindle, am I overstating things, or is there light at the end of the tunnel?

The Kindle's AZW format is exactly MOBI. Many of the Kindle's ebooks come from MobiPocket (i.e. the publishers submit them to MobiPocket, not Kindle). Note also that not all MOBI's come from MobiPocket, e.g. Overdrive distributes in MOBI format. Some publishers rely on distributors like Overdrive to convert a "master" version to formats like MOBI.

There are some Kindle exclusives, and some non-exclusives which may look that way. For example O'Reilly ebooks sell at the Kindle store and not at other ebook stores, but you can get a DRM-free 3 format bundle (PDF, ePub, MOBI) directly from O'Reilly. Also, exclusives are usually for a limited time. If a publisher has a MOBI (AZW) version, why would they want to ignore MOBI as a sales outlet?

Since Amazon owns MobiPocket, anything could happen in the future. Amazon could close MobiPocket in favor of Kindle, Amazon could extend AZW to make it different from MOBI, etcetera.

At present, what is happening is that MOBI is probably stronger because of the Kindle. The upcoming extension of the Kindle store to (some) cell phones is probably a danger sign for Mobipocket's longevity though.

Is the future of Mobipocket going to be a more expensive, patchy, later format than Kindle, am I overstating things, or is there light at the end of the tunnel?

As has been said, the Kindle does use MobiPocket format - they just have their own private DRM server.

Given that the Kindle is irrelevent to 95% of the world's population, and that Mobi books are sold world-wide, I really don't think there's any cause for immediate concern.

If Amazon decided to discontinue the mobi version (which I don't think will happen), I'd just start getting my books in .LIT format and convert them to mobi format.

Amazon have an exclusive with Stephen King (I believe I read?) for the Kindle.


You can buy King's books at many ebook retailers. He was asked to write a story for Kindle 2's launch that is exclusive. It's about a magical pink Kindle, so it's probably going to be cheesy (but I'll read it anyway :) ).