Google Joins Electronic Book Readers War and Backs the Sony Digital Book Reader
Google Joins Electronic Book Readers War and Backs the Sony Digital Book Reader
It has always been my thoughts that the Electronic Book Readers war would not be won on price alone. It seems that Google and the Sony Digital Book Reader have fired the first salvo across the bows of Amazon, in what has become the new battleground...proprietary file formats linked to on line eBook sales. One of the main stumbling blocks for people joining the e-book reader revolution has been the fact that if they threw their hat in with one manufacturer, in the future any change in allegiances could result in an e-library that was unreadable and useless on their new choice. It seemed at the time, the time of the newness of the technology and the top ticket prices being asked for the devices, that this was a good idea. Most manufacturers had their own proprietary format, it seemed that only the smaller manufacturers, in their attempt to make their models more appealing, actually thought about this as a long term problem. Fast forward to today, the electronic book readers gold rush has passed, we have been in the midst of a global down turn and buyers are looking for even more value. They are still there but they are in belt tightening mode and are in no mood to be screwed by anyone, something I have been saying has happened far to often in the past. So the logical step, by manufacturers of these devices, had to be towards more openness. Sony Corp seem to have stolen a big start on Amazon with the recent announcement by Google that they will be backing the open ePub file format. This format is taking over from PDF as the preferred format to deliver free content, and we all know where Google's stand on that, with more and more publishing houses using this as their choice. I don't think it is any coincidence that the newly announced Edition range of the Sony Digital Book Reader has support for this format and PDF as it coincided with the Google announcement. This must have come as a great shock over at planet Amazon. Their Kindle models, only recently upgraded, don't directly support ePub so are now at a distinct disadvantage to savvy electronic book readers. Those in the know are just not going to touch a Kindle at any price, and we all know Sony are going to do ever thing in their power to get the word across. So what is ePub and why, all of a sudden, have two monster companies seemingly set out to shaft Amazon? ePub file format is an open standard, lightweight format, specifically for text based electronic books, or eBooks as we all know them. Unlike PDF, ePub automatically shrinks or expands text for various display sizes. This makes it far more electronic book readers friendly than PDF which was always intended as an image based format and does not react kindly to down sizing text for smaller screens. To answer the second part of the question we just need to look deep into Go ogles mind. They have always been firmly on the side of freedom of choice and delivering, to the masses, relevant content. It is not in their psyche to limit there reported million plus titles, available at Go ogle Books, to only certain readers who own certain models of ebook reader and so have come down firmly on the side of the Sony Digital Book Reader by choosing to use pub. This has brought together, either intentionally or unintentionally we will probably never know, two giants squaring off against the current market leader. Find out the full Electronic Book Readers story and most importantly the file formats that different ebook readers allow you to use . Get to the bottom of this fast moving market and enlist the help of Noel's blog at Sony Digital Book Reader where you can find the latest news, views and reviews surrounding this and other Google, Amazon and Sony announcements. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Noel_K._Swinton
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