MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Sharp looking to push oddball XMDF format on new LCD readers

miklos.klaar · 09-09-2010, 08:34 PM

All of the information about Japan is in Japanese. One must use www.google.co.jp and search in Japanese. That article from Japan Times doesn't begin to cover the history or current status of e-books in Japan. It only talks about one retailer - one the newspaper editor could get a comment from. There are over 10 online retailers - some major ones:

http://www.shosai.ne.jp/
http://books.spacetown.ne.jp/sst/
http://shop.kodansha.jp/bc/books/paburi/
http://books.bitway.ne.jp/
http://www.ebookjapan.jp/ebj/
etc, etc.

Here is a comparison of the major ones with the formats - notice the predominance of XMDF?

http://www.bunshunplaza.com/list_pc/index_pda.html

The assumption that the catalog of Japanese books is small in comparison to Western books is irrelevant. Japan and the Western world are different places. Population size, publishing statistics, size of back catalogs, etc. comparisons are all factors here. More fuel for the discussion:

http://openarchive.cbs.dk/bitstream/...pdf?sequence=1

XMDF is predominant e-book format in Japan and by all indications will remain so - it's been more or less adopted by EPBAJ and will assimilate other formats. It's been around since 1985 while other formats have failed. The ebi and dotbook format's device support is quite poor compared to XMDF - they won't be around for long.

The strength of XMDF is that it can pretty much be read by anything (cellphones, pda's, computers, electronic dictionaries, etc.), even my electronic dictionary can read XMDF books as an extra feature.

It's instructive to look at what other manufacturers are doing. Who else has made an ebook format/device announcement in Japan recently? No one. What is Sony or Amazon doing in Japan for e-books? Nothing.

The XMDF format is an approved IEC standard. Therefore, it cannot be proprietary - internally it's basically XML. And if you believe wikipedia on ebook formats http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...e-book_formats :

"Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade and Agreement on Government Procurement of WTO mandate the use of ISO, IEC, or ISO/IEC JTC1 standards to each country and region wherever possible. Thus, one could argue that IEC 62448 should be used rather than EPUB of IDPF by every country and region.

The current version of IEC 62448 contains both XMDF of Sharp and BBeB of Sony. The revised version is expected to unify DotBook of Voyager Japan and XMDF of Sharp. The scope of this revision is to cover basic representations for the Japanese language. Technically speaking, this revision will provide a Japanese minimum set, a Japanese extension set, and a stylesheet language.

A forum for standardizing a unified Japanese format for electronic publishing is expected to be established by Japanese companies in 2010, and supported by Japanese ministries. The current member list includes JEITA(Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association), Sharp, Voyager Japan, Electronic Book Publishers Association of Japan, Japan Book Publishers Association, Dai Nippon Printing, and Toppan Printing. All of them are Japanese organizations or companies."

Epub will not be the all unifying format in Japan - or even "the" format. Even if it's imported into Japan it will undergo enough changes to make it unique. This is the usual pattern here.

09-09-2010, 08:34 PM	#13
miklos.klaar Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 50 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: iRex Iliad, Entourage eDGe, Sharp Netwalker PC-T1	All of the information about Japan is in Japanese. One must use www.google.co.jp and search in Japanese. That article from Japan Times doesn't begin to cover the history or current status of e-books in Japan. It only talks about one retailer - one the newspaper editor could get a comment from. There are over 10 online retailers - some major ones: http://www.shosai.ne.jp/ http://books.spacetown.ne.jp/sst/ http://shop.kodansha.jp/bc/books/paburi/ http://books.bitway.ne.jp/ http://www.ebookjapan.jp/ebj/ etc, etc. Here is a comparison of the major ones with the formats - notice the predominance of XMDF? http://www.bunshunplaza.com/list_pc/index_pda.html The assumption that the catalog of Japanese books is small in comparison to Western books is irrelevant. Japan and the Western world are different places. Population size, publishing statistics, size of back catalogs, etc. comparisons are all factors here. More fuel for the discussion: http://openarchive.cbs.dk/bitstream/...pdf?sequence=1 XMDF is predominant e-book format in Japan and by all indications will remain so - it's been more or less adopted by EPBAJ and will assimilate other formats. It's been around since 1985 while other formats have failed. The ebi and dotbook format's device support is quite poor compared to XMDF - they won't be around for long. The strength of XMDF is that it can pretty much be read by anything (cellphones, pda's, computers, electronic dictionaries, etc.), even my electronic dictionary can read XMDF books as an extra feature. It's instructive to look at what other manufacturers are doing. Who else has made an ebook format/device announcement in Japan recently? No one. What is Sony or Amazon doing in Japan for e-books? Nothing. The XMDF format is an approved IEC standard. Therefore, it cannot be proprietary - internally it's basically XML. And if you believe wikipedia on ebook formats http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...e-book_formats : "Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade and Agreement on Government Procurement of WTO mandate the use of ISO, IEC, or ISO/IEC JTC1 standards to each country and region wherever possible. Thus, one could argue that IEC 62448 should be used rather than EPUB of IDPF by every country and region. The current version of IEC 62448 contains both XMDF of Sharp and BBeB of Sony. The revised version is expected to unify DotBook of Voyager Japan and XMDF of Sharp. The scope of this revision is to cover basic representations for the Japanese language. Technically speaking, this revision will provide a Japanese minimum set, a Japanese extension set, and a stylesheet language. A forum for standardizing a unified Japanese format for electronic publishing is expected to be established by Japanese companies in 2010, and supported by Japanese ministries. The current member list includes JEITA(Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association), Sharp, Voyager Japan, Electronic Book Publishers Association of Japan, Japan Book Publishers Association, Dai Nippon Printing, and Toppan Printing. All of them are Japanese organizations or companies." Epub will not be the all unifying format in Japan - or even "the" format. Even if it's imported into Japan it will undergo enough changes to make it unique. This is the usual pattern here.