Quote:
Originally Posted by JasonB
I'm not sure I understand this. If you have three different readers, and have certain situations where you use one over the others - why isn't the type of eBook that you're reading one of those "situations" that would determine which reader you would be using? If you buy a Kindle book, that's a situation where you use your Kindle; a Sony book, a situation where you use your Sony. Alternatively, if you're reading a technical manual, I'm sure that you'd want a device with a 9"+ screen - and maybe colour; if you're just reading a novel, you'd want a smaller (6") screen for portability and convenience and wouldn't care about colour. So - if you have multiple readers anyway, I don't see why you have to stick to a format that all of them can read equally.
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i would say convenience in the first instance would be the answer to your question. Imagine the absolute mess we'd be in with portable audio if MP3 hadn't become the standard (yes I understand it's not open and there are license fees involved). Say you had to have an iPod for one batch of music you bought, a Sony for another, and yet another device to listen to audiobooks...and on and on. As it stands I can, with very little hesitation, buy any portable audio player and be guaranteed that my DRM-free MP3 music collection will play on that player. We should be heading toward that same situation for ereaders.
Your argument about PDF for technical reasons would be the same as me buying a COWON audio player over an iPod beccause the COWON provides FLAC and OGG playback. Yes, there should be ereaders that provide colour, PDF reading and a bigger screen for those who need that funcionality, but these devices, just like the COWON's playback of MP3, should have a default, universal format that are accepted on every reader (ePub of course)
ePub is the sanctioned standard, the only reason we're not seeing major adoption is the short-sightedness of certain companies who want to keep the market restricted to their own formats and reader. They have the football and they've taken it home
