Sony has been in the eReader business for a while now but with the recent success of Amazon’s Kindle devices, Sony has redoubled it’s efforts in order to push themselves back into this market.
In a surprising (for Sony) move in the right direction they have abandoned their proprietary eBook format, BeBB, for the EPUB standard that was established in 2007, the very format that the Kindle does not support. Supporting the EPUB standard means that any eBook you buy for your Sony touch screen eReader will work on any other eReader that supports the format, which is pretty much all of them save the Kindle. Standards support is good for consumers who are then free to choose which device they want on features rather than which one supports the format they need, however, since the Kindle has it’s own format and happens to be the most popular reader out there it might all mean nothing to the consumers.
If this all sounds a tad too familiar then you’re probably thinking about the music industry and it’s digital juggernaut, iTunes. The world may be happily suckling at Steve Jobs’ teat for their musical fix since his baby is the dominate force in the industry but the few people who want standards on their music so they can take it anywhere are getting crapped on almost daily, and it doesn’t seem like that will end anytime soon.
Will the same thing happen in the eReader world? Will Amazon become the next Apple and become so large and powerful that they can dictate how the eBook universe will get it’s content however they see fit? Only time will tell I suppose but in all of this there is something else that’s bothering me …
Sony gave up it’s own proprietary format!? This is the company that tried to give the world BetaMAX, the MiniDisc, UMD’s and the MemoryStick and for the most part they still insist on using their own formats despite the fact that no one cares about them at all. I would have thought after the hard won success of BluRay, Sony would try even harder to press their own formats. Well color me surprised. I guess this means one of two things, either Sony is actually starting to actually believe what Steve Haber, president of Sony’s Digital Reading Business Division said about the EPUB move:
A world of proprietary formats and DRMs creates silos and limits overall market growth. Consumers should not have to worry about which device works with which store. With a common format and common content protection solution (DRM), consumers will be able to shop around for the content they want regardless of where they get it or what device they use.
Or what’s more likely, they have gotten a little better at seeing when their own formats are going to fail miserably. After all they have a lot of experience with that.
