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With a jab at Adobe Digital Editions, Follett unveils a new e-reading app—a loser if it won’t work with ePub
January 22, 2009 | 4:04 am
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By David Rothman
Follett has unveiled a new e-reading app with K-12 and libraries in mind. So what format(s) is Follett using? Can the app handle the ePub e-book standard? If not, why not?
If I oversaw tech for a school or library system, I’d try to shun Follett Digital Reader—unless the Follett app can read ePub, the standard on which major publishers are counting to lower production costs and reduce the complexities of E for consumers.
An FAQ from Follett, alas, mentions an .fdr extension. Isn’t that just what schools and libraries need: another occupant of the Tower of eBabel?
Here’s another charming little detail: Isn’t Follett in the IDPF? If so, and if the new app can’t do ePub, then I suggest a public pillorying for whoever made the decision.
Meanwhile, in search of customers for its proprietary system, Follett takes a jab at the ePub-capable Adobe Digital Editions in the FAQ:
Follett Digital Reader vs. Adobe(r) Reader(r) or Adobe Digital Editions(r)
What is the difference between Adobe Digital Editions and the Follett Digital Reader?
Adobe’s latest eBook reader software reduces functionality that is important to Follett’s customers. Developing our own Reader allows Follett to guarantee our library customers will continue to enjoy the features that make eBooks valuable. The Follett Digital Reader has been designed specifically for the K-12 user, with the features that educators, media specialists, librarians and students find the most useful.
Can I still use Adobe Reader or Adobe Digital Editions to read my Follett eBooks if I want?
All Follett eBooks will be converted for use with the new Follett Digital Reader. Once this happens, a downloaded Follett eBook will no longer open in Adobe. back to top Do I still need Adobe Reader or Adobe Digital Editions on my computer to use Follett eBooks? No you do not. Once you have the Follett Digital Reader installed, you have everything you need to enjoy your Follett eBooks offline.
While Follett is committing a crime if it isn’t using ePub—shouldn’t software in use at budget-strapped libraries and schools be all about standards?—I certainly agree that Digital Editions could be much better. I suspect it will in time. I’d love to hear from Adobe about improvements planned in such areas as interface. The Mobipocket Reader remains vastly more intuitive and easier to read from on my Windows system. Same for eReader. Furthermore, like Mobi, Adobe Digital Editions has yet to make it to the iPhone. Even if that requires fancy technical work, Adobe should act, given the size of the cell phone market and the iPhone one in particular.
(Found via Crunch Gear and the Washington Examiner.)
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Comments:
Responding to your recent post, the new Follett Digital Reader is a far better fit for the K-12 education market and will offer a far more enriching eBook experience than previously available. That’s because it’s designed specifically for the market and is much easier to use.
Why have we created our own Digital Reader? First, we wanted to remove our dependency on other technologies we have licensed so we can be more responsive to our customer needs in K-12 and public libraries as we innovate new solutions today and into the future. We also wanted to ensure we can offer our customers affordably priced eBook solutions without having to pass along other fees to cover licensing from 3rd party technology providers.
In addition, picture books and other graphics-intensive books come alive and work much better with the Follett Digital Reader – just like their paper equivalents – versus competing formats.
The sum total is that Follett is expanding its customers’ options and delivering products and services best suited to their needs. The last thing Follett wants to or will do is make it more costly for our publishing partners to flow their content through Follett’s extensive distribution channels and markets. Our Digital Reader 1.0 does not preclude our support for other formats, such as ePub, in the future, but we’ll continue to evaluate those needs based on feedback from our valued customers – publishers, schools and libraries.
Hmm, the site says (in additions to numerous mentions of .fdr files):
“a downloaded Follett eBook will no longer open in Adobe.”
Maybe this just applies to books converted to this format, you might be thinking. Check the FAQ farther down:
“Can I read other companies
I do agree with Steve (who gave an obvious Follett PR statement) that Adobe Digital Editions is a poor ebook reader for the educational market which Follett is targeting. However, it is certainly possible that the “rich” experience (including interactivity such as annotation) can be achieved using the ePub format, and building a specialized ePub reader to give the needed capabilities. ePub is quite rich in how it may represent digital content, and of course may include multimedia.
Until I hear differently, I sense Follett’s business model is more about having a proprietary format (including its own proprietary DRM) so no one else can build a competitive reader to access books in their format.
I won’t argue with anyone who wants a book reader with a better user experience. (Seriously Adobe, a black on black on dark gray color scheme?) But I think Jon is right about Follett locking books into it’s own format. And that’s exactly the opposite of what we need.
ePub is an open standard, reflowable format which can represent the content in a way that an ePub reading system may render the content to a high degree of presentational quality.
Thus, even if a company like Follett wants to use a proprietary “use only our reader” approach, it is perplexing why they don’t use ePub with their own DRM encryption (I’m assuming they are using a format which is not ePub-based.)
They get what they want, and don’t saddle publishers with YAPF (“yet another proprietary format”). This also allows their publications to be read on the widest range of platforms since the ePub format (based upon the OPS/OPF/OCF specs) was designed for a very wide range of platforms.