Sony to adopt common format for ebooks
It is obvious that Sony is keen on its ebook reader, and we have been seeing a lot of news from Sony Reader lately, which almost surpasses the heat of Amazon Kindle. Now Sony is trying to push its ebook product line to another level with the introduction of common format for ebook readers.
The fact with the most popular ebook reader is that the downloaded books is only readable on its proprietary reader. This (might) bring some troubles to the users when they attempt to read their ebooks on another platform. Sony announced on Thursday that it will sell its digital books only in the ePub format by the end of the year. The ePub format is an open standard created by a group of publishers including Random House and HarperCollins. Another great news is that Sony will also scrap its proprietary anticopying software (some kind of DRM) which is used to restrict the copy and distribution of ebooks. Still a new measure using Adobe’s technology will be adopted to control how the digital books can be copied or shared.
It is expected that there will be a abrupt increase of the ePub capable ebook reader in the market after this announcement because all ebook titles for Sony Readers will also be readable on other ePub platforms. This change is significant, as Sony will not making its ebook business hardware-reliant but rather title oriented. “If people are going to this e-book shopping mall, they are going to want to shop at all the stores, and not just be required to shop at one store,” said Steve Haber, president of Sony’s digital reading unit.
Thinking of the (relatively) high price of Amazon Kindle unit, the move to the open format is natural and competitive. Amazon still holds the largest collection of ebook titles, however, it imposes hard restrictions on the copyright management of its ebooks. The recent advocation arised since Amazon deleted the copies of George Orwell’s “1984” and “Animal Farm” from the Kindle libraries of people who have bought the novels.
To sum it up, Sony will adopt an open format for its digital content, and will sell its ebooks at $9.99. Sony also says that it will integrate the wireless connectivity in its next generation Reader lines late this year. With the rumor that Apple will also announce a Tablet unit which is also capable of ebook reading, the ebook business war officially heats up.