MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - guardian.co.uk:Ebooks battle for next chapter

Kris777 · 04-26-2009, 01:22 AM

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/apr/23/ebooks

...
The clear message from this week's London Book Fair was that UK publishing and retailing are finally ready to embrace the ebook. But don't dump your bookshelves yet. Before the ebook can really challenge its paper equivalent, the industry has to avert a format war a whole lot more complicated than VHS v Betamax.

"A format war could hold back the development of the ebook market," says Simon Juden, chief executive of the Publishers Association. That's bad news for the book industry, and frustrating for readers waiting to join the ebook revolution.

There are more than 25 ebook file formats. Amazon and Sony, manufacturers of the Reader and Kindle devices, both have exclusive formats - AZW and BBeB/LRF. Of the other common formats, Mobipocket is supported by Amazon but not Sony, while Adobe PDF is supported by Sony but not Amazon. Throw DRM into the mix and things become even more complex....

04-26-2009, 01:22 AM	#1
Kris777 Banned Posts: 1,767 Karma: 2520493 Join Date: Oct 2008 Device: Nexus 7, jetBook-Lite, jetBook mini, Toshiba Thrive, JETBOOK COLOR	guardian.co.uk:Ebooks battle for next chapter http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/apr/23/ebooks ... The clear message from this week's London Book Fair was that UK publishing and retailing are finally ready to embrace the ebook. But don't dump your bookshelves yet. Before the ebook can really challenge its paper equivalent, the industry has to avert a format war a whole lot more complicated than VHS v Betamax. "A format war could hold back the development of the ebook market," says Simon Juden, chief executive of the Publishers Association. That's bad news for the book industry, and frustrating for readers waiting to join the ebook revolution. There are more than 25 ebook file formats. Amazon and Sony, manufacturers of the Reader and Kindle devices, both have exclusive formats - AZW and BBeB/LRF. Of the other common formats, Mobipocket is supported by Amazon but not Sony, while Adobe PDF is supported by Sony but not Amazon. Throw DRM into the mix and things become even more complex....