It's not as if any of us need any more proprietary formats in our lives, but Sony is hitting us up with their new Sony Reader that will be based on its own e-book format (
Broad Band eBook aka BBeB). Although the device will also display Adobe PDFs, these will have to be first converted to BBeB on a PC using the software provided with the reader. Adobe blogger Bill McCoy, a firm believer in interoperable XML-based formats, has a nifty little blurb on this topic arguing that BBeB "is simply one of the best of a number of what I would call "compiled from XML" derivative formats". It's also supposed to turn into an open format, but we'll believe that when we see it.
More over at
Adobe Blogs.
Related:
Structure of BBeB (PDF),
Sony's new e-book reader officially announced,
Sony Reader vs. iRex Iliad e-book reader