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Originally Posted by andym
I don't know whether the future is a super-gizmo that doubles as a phone, MP3 player, video player, GPS and eReader, or separate devices for all or some of these functions - probably a combination of the two.
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Many of these aims are clearly contradictory - how many people want a phone the size of a book? Or a book the size of a very small MP3 player? For some devices, small size is a "plus", but for others, large size is.
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As far as handheld devices are concerned the ePub standard has got to be the key. I think the mobipocket is a great piece of software ( the look up and annotation facilities for example are just really slick) but I very much doubt publishers ae going to want to replicate what has happened with iTunes and the market for legal music downloads (though that said you wonder what would have happened if it hadn't been for the success of iTunes).
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I'm not sure I'm with you; iTunes has been a great success. It would be a thoroughly satisfactory situation (IMHO) if a single standard, such as MobiPocket, came to dominate through simple dominance of the market, as Apple has done for music. A
def facto standard is just as much as standard as a
de jure one, after all.
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Hopefully Amazon will put its weight behind eBooks - eg a big button 'Want it now?' or whatever, as well as promoting the general advantages of eBooks over pBooks for many types of book.
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Amazon have, of course, bought MobiPocket - that's got to be a good sign. They (Amazon) have huge "clout" in the book distribution market. They are in a perfect position to put pressure on publishers to release eBooks. I'd be perfectly happy if MobiPocket were to become the
de facto eBook standard - it's in a dominant position already.