The New York Times breaks the news that Sony will announce its going with ePub as its main format, albeit a version from Adobe that includes DRM.
On Thursday, Sony Electronics, which sells e-book devices under the Reader brand, plans to announce that by the end of the year it will sell digital books only in the ePub format.
Sony will also scrap its proprietary anti-copying software in favor of technology from the software maker Adobe.
Wow – new Sony Readers, lower prices, adding wireless, and now going with ePub. Sony seems to have suddenly decided eReaders are the next big thing and that they want a bigger share.
History Repeats Itself
In the music downloads market Amazon had attacked Apple by making music at its MP3 store DRM-free. Apple was forced to go with DRM free itself.
Sony is, in effect, stealing a page out of Amazon’s book (using openness in an area where your competitor is closed).
“There is going to be a proliferation of different reading devices … ” said Steve Haber, president of Sony’s digital reading unit. “people … are going to want to shop at all the stores, and not just be required to shop at one store.”
To provide a balanced perspective NY Times throw in a comment from Bill McCoy, GM for Adobe’s Digital Publishing Business -
If the business terms and conditions end up being dictated to publishers by one bookseller who has a chokehold over the value chain, publishers are going to have a hard time staying profitable.
They end with an analyst’s mention that Apple will decide whether an open or closed ebook format will win.
This is why Amazon keeps Kindle Sales Numbers secret
Amazon has kept kindle sales figures secret and perhaps they should have actively downplayed ebooks. It would have been nice to go another year as ‘big fish in small pond no one wants to be in’ and get even more of a lead.
Instead we have –
Everyone’s appointed eReaders the next big thing.
Existing Players like Sony and Google are getting serious.
New players are jumping in.
Amazon is getting painted as a big bully.
Guess it was inevitable.
Paul Biba at Teleread is ecstatic -
This is just fantastic news! Sony is taking a bold step that will benefit ebook readers more than any of us can say.
What Sony’s adoption of ePub will lead to is probably a big ‘Kindle format Vs ePub’ battle, and then Amazon will either win out or jump ship before people can actually call a winner.
Filed under: news, sony reader Tagged: | epub vs real pub, kindle vs sony
[...] eBook store to the EPUB format by the end of the year. More coverage here , here, and here. Abhi says “wow,” Paul Biba says, “fantastic,” and David Rothman chides the Times for [...]