Proprietary software and hardware comes and goes, some of them more popular and successful than others. But eBooks themselves tend to stay. As html, as txt, as xml, whatever.

If one is concerned about any proprietary format dominating the market we are talking about bestsellers from the big companies. So we’re talking just about a handful of books. Which nobody really needs. I mean REALLY needs.

I myself couldn’t finish a Brown or a Meyer until now simply I consider the author’s style to be rather uninteresting. Let their publishers choose a format which might be dominating – I won’t mind.
There are literally thousands of books availbale. Classics also as free ones. Novels from independant authors who won’t rely on any particular format or DRM as well as amateur authors.

Readers will be forced into any software or hardware solution only if they choose to be forced. It’s the old saying of your wallet that decides.

Decide and choose those who won’t dominate but simply entertain you. Simple as that.

The way the publishing have been developing the last 100 years have been forced on the publishers make no doubt about it, they did not want the market they god, the music bizz had have the licensing deals that made jukeboxes and radio posible dictated by congress and theres have been a long wet dream of shutting down libraries and second hand markets in the book world so it’s no suprise that none of those are avalible when someone gets to rewrite the rules by going digital.

The difference in profitablity on the PC and console markets speaks volumes, companes like dell makes almost nothing pr unit compared to sony.

Deregulation have had this tendency to be kind of the oposite, ie not actually give the avrenge citizen more freedom but give trade comglomerates more legislative power.

(I know we’re talking about hardware rather than software, but I still think someone will surmount this problem.)

The problem is that the publishers never really got behind digital publishing. They viewed it as a threat to their business model. Which it probably is.

That left other companies to fill a void in the market place. Amazon wasn’t the 1st to market, but they have the best implementation do date. Couple that with an ever growing selection and unbeatable pricing and you can see why they are doing so well.

“It is my fervent hope and desire that the focus of e-reader manufacturers change from proprietary to universal platforms in which a device could read any e-book. But, alas, I think we are a few business and technology cycles away from any sort of movement towards that lofty ideal.”

Which pretty much sums up my feelings on the subject. Alas, what the industry needs is a Big Player that will start the process towards universality that I believe we will eventually get to. If that player isn’t part of the industry, we’ll probably suffer through format wars and a lot of grief, before an outside entity (like a government or international agency) imposes order on the industry.

It could turn out to be a good thing, in fact, for government to intervene: Remember, we once had incompatible electricity networks, television broadcasts and roadway signage before the government imposed order. But in the meantime, we’ll certainly have to suffer.