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By David Rothman

Adobe readerJohn Wiley & Sons, Inc., is one of the giants of the global book trade, at least within such areas as technical books. So how does Joe Wikert, a vice president and executive publisher in the Professional/Trade Divsion, feel about Adobe Digital Editions, the new Adobe reader now in public beta?

“I’ve played around with it for a few days now,” he writes, “and I don’t see what the big deal is. Sure, it’s a nice little application that lets you organize and read your e-docs, but what’s new and exciting here? I’ve been able to read PDFs on my laptop and PDAs for years now.”

Rescuing PDA users from PDF horrors

Compared to Digital Editions, dotReader will offer much more, especially for tech book publishers, which will benefit from truly advanced interactivity. But in fairness to Adobe, its new reader is a major step forward for the company, just as Adobe’s Bill McCoy says, given its ability to read documents in a reflowable format. Try reading PDF on a typical handheld; let us know your secrets, Joe, if you truly do enjoy PDF on a PDA! While Tower of eBabel issues still abound, especially DRM-related ones, which dotReader-type software will solve better, the Adobe reader offers some progress compared to the horrors of PDF.

Software matters a lot more in e-books than you’d think, Joe, and the right program could give new life to current hardware. I know you’re hoping for a “full color” device “priced at less than $200 and the ability to pick up news feeds via WiFi?” But I almost own such a device. It’s called a Palm TX, it offers WiFi, and in another few months, I suspect that new TXes will go for below $200. The screen is smaller than you might like, but I wouldn’t be surprised if future models improved on it. And as for picking up news feeds and being iPod simple–well, that’s what the right reader software could do for you. Genuine e-book standards, encompassing DRM, could also help by lessening consumer confusion and driving down support costs.

Usual disclosure: I’m among the ringleaders of the OpenReader standard, of which dotReader is the first implementer. OSoft, creator of dotReader, already has some promising DRM. Ultimately the standards setters must decide the DRM issue, but one way or another, OpenReader is committed to a full solution–whether through open standards (if possible), OSoft or another company, or through interoperability.

 
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