A Deal Has Been Made (for some and for now)

I'm not sure if you will be able to use the copies of the link to a NY Times article published today. If you can't, here it is again: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/technology/internet/13reader.html?th&emc=th

This is fantastic news! I hope that Amazon and Barnes & Noble and all the publishing houses see the light. If they do, then we will be able to read practically every ebook published with the particular ebook reader of our choice. In addition, this will facilitate ebook library services - whether they be municipal, academic, or private (a la Rhapsody) libraries.

Barnes & Noble . . . Another Format?

I checked my email today and before the page finished opening, the absurd hit me with a left hook that practically sent me to the floor. Our friends at B & N have launched a new "ebook store" within their website and - best of all - the books are in yet another ebook format that is, as of now, compatible with iPhones, iPods Touch, Blackberries, Mac's, and PC's. Leave it to the geniuses of the publishing industry to do precisely what we don't need - more ebook formats. What is even more curious, B & N has an ebook store called "Fictionwise.com" where one can purchase and download books in Adobe and one or two formats. I can't understand why publishers, book sellers, and ebook manufacturers cannot learn from the Beta vs VHS and the HDDVD vs Bluetooth wars and come up with a standard format. Didn't they see how much money was spent by the participants during these conflicts and that the winner's return on investment was severely affected by the wars? Come on guys, please come up with one format! I don't want to be forced to buy 3 or 4 readers only to find, six months after I purchased the 4th machine that 3 or (even worse) all 4 are worthless because the book business finally did what it should have done from the beginning - establish one format. I'm leaving you some news articles from Zemanta so you can see for your self how crazy things are:

Related articles by Zemanta

• Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the Battle for E-Books (blogs.harvardbusiness.org)
• Sony officially announces the Reader Touch Edition, Reader Pocket Edition (crunchgear.com)
• State of the Computer Book Market - Mid-Year 2009 (radar.oreilly.com)
• Barnes & Noble chases Amazon with ebook second coming (theregister.co.uk)
• Adobe Wave launches - lets publishers update readers right on desktop (digital.venturebeat.com)
• Will Publishers Ever Make Money Off eBooks? (gigaom.com)
• Sony offers new touchscreen e-reader and one for $199 (macworld.com)
• Pocket-size Sony reader $100 cheaper than Kindle (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Google Dumps Another Half-Million Free Titles In Sony's eBook Store [Ebooks] (gizmodo.com)
• Now Samsung has an e-book reader, Korea gets first dibs (crunchgear.com)
• Disrupting the book publishing industry (startupcfo.ca)