June 02, 2010
Publishers Call for E-book StandardBy Paula Bernier, Executive Editor, IP Communications Magazines VHS or Betamax. Blu-ray or HD DVD. There are plenty of examples of hard-fought format wars we can find in the high-tech history books. And, soon, another is likely to be added to the annals of history. That is the war over e-book formats.
As a story on the matter explains, ePub and MobiPocket are among the formats used for e-books. Of course, the Kindle folks at Amazon are just fine with their format, as is the Apple (News - Alert) iPad camp, and even the Nook types from Barnes and Noble. However, publishers are more than a little uncomfortable with the range of format options and distribution options from which they have to select as the era of the e-read unfolds. But their main beef seems to be that these different formats lock users into reading books and other documents only while within a specific environment. They make this complaint despite the recent, high-profile moves by companies such as Amazon to make e-readers for their e-books available on the iPad and other mobile devices. Edited by Marisa Torrieri (source: http://vertical.tmcnet.com/topics/gadgets/articles/87151-publishers-call-e-book-standard.htm) |