The Lexcycle team did an amazing job on connecting their catalog system to our API though, and from what I’ve seen they’re very talented developers. I really love the fact that they’re supporting ePub too, we really need to get out of this eBabel mess, and using the right format is the first step towards this goal.

Mike: At Feedbooks we’ve been offering thousands of ePub books for months now, and also the ability to turn RSS feeds into ePub files.

As for ePub – it appears to be a pre-DRM added format for use by publishers to supply to various distribution outlets. They (Amazon, Sony and such) would then convert the one file to their own DRM added formats (which can be proprietary or not) before selling the books. The big advantage is that it lets publishers create a single format — not that it drops the format support for end users down to one. Indeed, it would be to a publisher’s advantage that there be no end-user support of ePub, as that would prevent the non-drm version they supply to distributors from being released into the wild. Luckily for end-users, the publishers should not be able to lock ePub up just for their own use.

As for making life easier at the desktop, it will be just another reader that has to be installed (along with all the older ones on most current machines), unless the new ePub readers also read all the old formats available (and there are quite a few from both drm and non-drm standpoints).

I like the look of the Stanza and will be eager to download and try it out.

1. The issue isn’t just how common the format is, but how open the machine is. Apple did itself a favor by allowing indies to develop for it.

2. ePub, as a nonproprietary format, will be more trustworthy and less susceptible to future gotchas.

3. We’ve already reported that Amazon may do the Kindle on other machines. I’d be shocked if it didn’t. Kindle format is really just Mobi with minor DRM-related tweaks.

4. I myself noted those 130K books that Amazon has in the Kindle format. Still, that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the total number of titles. What if competitors end up with more?

Thanks for speaking up. Be interesting to see how this-here situation shakes out.

David

Start NOW!

Really it all boils down to who is able to offer the content most people want.

I’ve not seen anyone offer any actual details of the contracts between amazon and the major publishers that offer Kindle formatted books. Perhaps amazon has an exclusive deal – just as AT&T has an exclusive lock on selling iPhones. Perhaps not.

If reading books on the iPhone turns out to be something most users are clamoring to do then the market will respond.

Amazon can quite easily create an app that would allow Kindle books to be read on the iPhone.

I will make a bold prediction that before the year is out amazon WILL actually do just that. Creating an app for Kindle books on the iPhone would likely have little impact on the sales of amazon’s Kindle. Any loss of Kindle hardware sales would be more than made up by the increased sales of Kindle books.