Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
MobiPocket format is already (IMHO) that de facto standard. It's available on a very wide range of different devices, from smartphones to PDAs to eInk readers such as the iRex iLiad, Bookeen CyBook Gen3, and Amazon Kindle.
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Thanks for the response Harry but, sadly, a standard isn't a standard till everyone adopts it. There are still large numbers of ebooks not available in Mobi format and companies like Sony and Microsoft are still going to be trying to tie up exclusive deals for their formats. But I hope you're right and think you probably are - but even there, Amazon clearly want to try and enforce a distinction between Kindle and Mobi so that they can ring-fence sales.
If only the publishers themselves realized how much it costs them to have formats decided by the hardware manufacturers. How many of us have not found ourselves turning to the classics because we can get them in the format we want (and free!), while new books are only available for someone else's reader . It may be good for our minds but it's not good for the publishers' bottom line.
Ah well, at least we have now all read Mark Twain and Dickens...
Argel