MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - What will Adobe Digital Editions do for Sony owners?

Bob Russell · 12-03-2007, 07:40 AM

To summarize my understanding of ePub format as it relates to Sony Reader:
* It is a reflowable format appropriate for showing content on a variety of screen sizes
* It is an open standard from the IDPF that allows and encourages widespread cooperative industry adoption
* There is an associated container format based on .zip archives, which allows all associated files to be bundled. This is especially useful for publishers
* The standard is also intended to be used by end users
* Sony and Adobe are "working" on supporting it on the Sony Reader. There may be a certain level of support they hope to achieve on Windows Digital Editions before they port to the Reader, but they have intent to work on it and are probably busy (more reasons to think they are busy on it follow, but the comment in a previous post from the team also hints at it).
* Sony and Borders have already announced a partnership for selling books. I think they said it was a Connect store based partnership, but I don't remember the specifics. At any rate, one almost has to come up with the conclusion that they intend to expand e-book sales to include Borders.com, and base it on DE/ePub not Sony's BBeB (although maybe BBeB will be used in the short run). Whether it's an expanded store or just Borders getting to use the Connect engine is not clear. But surely Borders doesn't intend to commit to another closed system with the Reader, and instead expects to sell ePub e-books to multiple future devices with complete interoperability. We can hope so anyway.
* So, ultimately, the hope is that ePub becomes a popular and the majority-implemented standard just like Adobe Acrobat, but with its flowable format advantages for varied screen sizes. That would mean simplicity for epublishers and consumers if everyone is using the same format. (Avoiding some of the Tower of eBabel incompatibility problems.) If sellers adopt an interchangeable DRM, then we could see e-books for many devices sold by many booksellers. That would be sort of a holy grail of bookselling for consumers, and potentially would also be a boon for publishers because of the potential it has to expand the e-book market.
* ePub would then also provide a very nice alternative to the closed Kindle system and format from Amazon.

(Feel free to correct/adjust the statements above as appropriate if I've missed or mistated anything.)

12-03-2007, 07:40 AM	#25
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	To summarize my understanding of ePub format as it relates to Sony Reader: * It is a reflowable format appropriate for showing content on a variety of screen sizes * It is an open standard from the IDPF that allows and encourages widespread cooperative industry adoption * There is an associated container format based on .zip archives, which allows all associated files to be bundled. This is especially useful for publishers * The standard is also intended to be used by end users * Sony and Adobe are "working" on supporting it on the Sony Reader. There may be a certain level of support they hope to achieve on Windows Digital Editions before they port to the Reader, but they have intent to work on it and are probably busy (more reasons to think they are busy on it follow, but the comment in a previous post from the team also hints at it). * Sony and Borders have already announced a partnership for selling books. I think they said it was a Connect store based partnership, but I don't remember the specifics. At any rate, one almost has to come up with the conclusion that they intend to expand e-book sales to include Borders.com, and base it on DE/ePub not Sony's BBeB (although maybe BBeB will be used in the short run). Whether it's an expanded store or just Borders getting to use the Connect engine is not clear. But surely Borders doesn't intend to commit to another closed system with the Reader, and instead expects to sell ePub e-books to multiple future devices with complete interoperability. We can hope so anyway. * So, ultimately, the hope is that ePub becomes a popular and the majority-implemented standard just like Adobe Acrobat, but with its flowable format advantages for varied screen sizes. That would mean simplicity for epublishers and consumers if everyone is using the same format. (Avoiding some of the Tower of eBabel incompatibility problems.) If sellers adopt an interchangeable DRM, then we could see e-books for many devices sold by many booksellers. That would be sort of a holy grail of bookselling for consumers, and potentially would also be a boon for publishers because of the potential it has to expand the e-book market. * ePub would then also provide a very nice alternative to the closed Kindle system and format from Amazon. (Feel free to correct/adjust the statements above as appropriate if I've missed or mistated anything.)