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And BN, Google, and Kobo all came out after Amazon was in the game using Mobi. All three could have selected to use Mobi if they wanted and all three chose EPub.
You can argue that EPub is a better format for all the technical reasons but I don't believe for a second that is why any of them choose EPub.
They choose EPub so that they would not have to compete directly with Amazons ebooks. It was a business decision. Maybe it was a good one but none of them choose EPub because they were nice guys and wanted people to be able to shop at stores other then theirs.
BN choose EPub, put its own DRM on books, and allowed Nook users to shop at inferior stores with higher prices.
Kobo choose EPub with the Adobe DRM probably hoping that it would sell more ereaders because people could shop at other stores, pretty much Sony, and knowing that Nook users would be able to shop at their store.
Nook, Sony, Kobo would all be silly to use any form of Mobi. They know that Amazon could allow their DRM read on the Kindle if Amazon wanted to. More importantly they know that chosing Mobi and allowing people to read Amazon ebooks on their devices would screw their ebook business.
Why is it that I see people happy that they rooted their Nook Colors so they could shp at Amazon? If the Epub book market was as good as Amazons store, there would be no need for a rooted Nook downloading the Kindle Android App.
Again, these were business decisions. They give people the illusion of freedom when in reality the businesses know that they would struggle to compete with Amazon. Conviently, they can now go "Look you can shop where you want and you can't do that with a Kindle" while Kindle owners shrug their shoulders and go "So? You don't sell anything that we can't already find at the same price." and occassionally go to the same indie bookstores to find other books.
Just because you cannot see the fence there does not mean that it is not. EPub users have as much freedom as Amazon users. Except that Amazon users have a larger bookselection.
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