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Originally Posted by queentess
Most common to who? Which languages/countries are we talking about?
The NL is not the whole world (although some like to think so).
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Most common globally. Most common in availibility. Most common in reader acceptance. Need to go on?
Frankly, I don't care about the situation here in the Netherlands. Our time as world power is long gone and no tears here. Apparently you feel offended by my remark that the US and a lot of its inhabitants tend to act as they are the world. I don't care if they do, but there is a whole world outside their borders with different ideas and customs.
But I digress. If I look around in the real world and on different websites and all, it seems that the two main formats are ePUB and mobi. In the ideal world the readers would support both formats, in the real world it will unfortunatly not. Who will win? No idea. Perhaps ePUB, perhaps mobi, perhaps a third format. I do know that by creating my own books in ePUB I should be able to change it to another format, since it is open.
Has one writer the power to make a format leading or even winning? I don't think so. What will? Money and power. They only way we as reader will have any influence is with our wallets. And I doubt if even that has much impact...
Most books are available in multiple formats anyway. If publishers want to spend the money to make multiple formats instead of pushing one format, it is their choice. Then again, I hate to think what will happen if the publishing world will create their own format...
Due to the spread of e-books, backwards compatibility will be a problem/issue. You don't want to buy a new version if you change your reader. The publishers and retailers would love it of course. Older devices are not getting updates with newer versions of reading software. In my opinion that will also be a risk with ePUB3 or ePUB in general.