MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - How can we convince Amazon to sell ePub format?

K-Thom · 12-31-2010, 10:47 PM

Sony used BBeB in different variants, but supported ePub with the PRS-505.
Interestingly Bookeen began with MOBI on the Gen 1,3, later chose to support ePub as well with the Opus and relies now on ePub solely.
Pocketbook on the other hand started with FB2 and had to learn to support ePub to survive in Western Europe (my, I remember my mails to Forkosigan insisting to include DRM'd ePub ...).

If I were B&N I couldn't choose MOBI for the nook, since that would make me dependent on Amazon, which is a total No-go. So any other bookstore company with its own reading device was kind of "forced" to rely on ePub. And accept an awkward Adobe software solution.

Europe's publishers and online bookstores had to decide on what was available, and that was the Sony PRS-505 back in early 2009. Had Amazon succeeded in launching the Kinde back then, we would be up to a totally different situation today.
But they didn't. So it's ePub for Europe at the moment. Well, it was RB about 10 years ago (at least in those countries where the RocketBook was sold), so nothing is etched in stone (or display surfaces).

We actually will know where we (and the formats) are standing when Amazon is launching a German, French, Italian or Russian Kindle store. It will either be a "one market, two formats" solution or a mean, ugly fight for the upper hand (keep your popcorn ready).

12-31-2010, 10:47 PM	#256
K-Thom The one and only Posts: 3,302 Karma: 535819 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Berlin, Germany Device: yup!	Sony used BBeB in different variants, but supported ePub with the PRS-505. Interestingly Bookeen began with MOBI on the Gen 1,3, later chose to support ePub as well with the Opus and relies now on ePub solely. Pocketbook on the other hand started with FB2 and had to learn to support ePub to survive in Western Europe (my, I remember my mails to Forkosigan insisting to include DRM'd ePub ...). If I were B&N I couldn't choose MOBI for the nook, since that would make me dependent on Amazon, which is a total No-go. So any other bookstore company with its own reading device was kind of "forced" to rely on ePub. And accept an awkward Adobe software solution. Europe's publishers and online bookstores had to decide on what was available, and that was the Sony PRS-505 back in early 2009. Had Amazon succeeded in launching the Kinde back then, we would be up to a totally different situation today. But they didn't. So it's ePub for Europe at the moment. Well, it was RB about 10 years ago (at least in those countries where the RocketBook was sold), so nothing is etched in stone (or display surfaces). We actually will know where we (and the formats) are standing when Amazon is launching a German, French, Italian or Russian Kindle store. It will either be a "one market, two formats" solution or a mean, ugly fight for the upper hand (keep your popcorn ready). Last edited by K-Thom; 12-31-2010 at 10:55 PM.