Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
Quote:
Originally Posted by CyGuy
Personally, I could see ebooks becoming far more common and paper books becoming less common. I love reading ebooks myself. However, there are a couple of small issue to overcome and one HUGE issue to overcome.
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Second, a standard format must be selected.
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Because printed books come in exactly one format: one type of paper, one font, one type of binding. They are all readable under all lighting conditions and can be handled the same way.
A standard format isn't going to happen because different types of ebooks, like pbooks, will have different customer bases. A dominant-marketplace format may emerge--I'm voting on ePub--but it won't drive PDF into nonexistence; it won't drive out plain HTML or RTF in some markets, either. |
A file format is not the same as formatting. An ebook can be in a 'standard' filetype and still have differing fonts from book to book. I'm a little confused by your point here.
In the world of technology it IS a big deal to lack a standard. The music industry settled on mp3 as the default file format, and I know that if I download and mp3 that I can play it on all my mp3 players. I don't need to make sure I have the Sony brand dvd player before I can play a certain dvd.
Consumers want the same ease of use for ebooks. I don't care which vendor I'm purchasing the book from; it should just work on my ereader.