Quote:
Originally Posted by jswinden
The whole ePub is the prevailing format in the USA argument is incorrect.
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Does it even matter?; you're arguing for walled gardens. You call mobi a standard, which in itself is quite ironic.
The idea behind epub is that it reuses standard formats - zip, xml + html, jpeg and png. Formats that are friendly, well understood and have good libraries for working with them. This allows easy component reuse and toolchains as well as editors to work natively with the file(s). This is why people like them - this is why other reader vendors like them. Think Android.
If it is used by the largest player or not is a pointless straw-man argument - people want what they want, in this case it's dependent on desiring something that is portable, easy to use and has a good native toolset. Why do they want this? The reuse allows them to better convert other formats into this new container with a certain degree of certainty.
DRM talks are pointless too, people do not care about the implementation, rather the content of the container and if the DRM has constrained the container in any way. Amazon also will have accepted that the DRM will be cracked in any case.
In short the real issue is more that Amazon want to keep other book stores out of the device, while other vendors accept that their stores can not compete directly, and as such desire 3rd party bookstores to help increase coverage.