07-13-2006, 03:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Standard for eBooks?
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=6833
On the whole, eBooks have not been much of a success. At best it is a niche market with limited appeal to people that have devices that can use them. It seems Microsoft's own Reader application has been left for dead, both on the desktop and mobile device, and with that insane DRM implementation, good riddance. Every hardware implementation seems to have fallen by the wayside too. I haven't heard much of Sony's latest product in this area either, the Sony Reader. Much of the problem is the books are in multiple formats. Some ebooks are only availble in one of the multiple formats - MS Reader, eReader.com (Palm .pdb), Adobe or worse, something totally proprietery to a given site. Perhaps that is all about to change.
"The e-book industry has come to agreement on e-book standard standards. Yes! Agreement by the e-book industry on standards. It's not completely finalized yet, but we appear to be on the verge of a monumental achievement that will propel the industry forward. "The combined standards efforts will result in a non-proprietary way for publishers to deliver digital books through the distribution chain to consumers, similar to the MP3 format for digital music. No patent encumbrances are expected of either new specification."
I hope this comes to pass, but for now, I'll file this under "I'll believe it when I see it."
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07-13-2006, 03:23 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 211
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I don't know if it's the proprietary nature of the e-book formats that has killed the product so much as the fact that DRM locks you in to one device for the most part and that an e-book costs as much as the full retail of a hardback. Why would I buy an e-book if I can buy a paperback version of the book for 1/4 of the cost?
I really like e-books. I like being able to load HTML, CHM, TXT, RTF, or PDB files on my PPC and read them as needed. Project Gutenberg provides quite a bit of material and the books I get that come with a CHM file can be loaded and read with uBook - easy reference material at times.
I look forward to seeing what develops from this as well. I really hope that e-books can drop in price to the point that they're reasonable and that they'll be usable in a way that won't make us buy the book again if we change devices.
-Pete
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07-13-2006, 03:53 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,183
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Not sure where the idea that MSReader format is dead came from. Judging from the thousands of books available in that format - legal or otherwise - there is huge demand for it. There is also large demand for HTML, PDF and other formats too...
But I'm sure, given the choice, users would prefer a standard file format that allows them to choose a reader on features and functionality, rather than, say, being locked into what is most readaily available, or the application who's format the book library is built with.
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07-13-2006, 04:06 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 98
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It appears that all they've done is agree to a container standard. Not that that isn't a huge thing, it speaks nothing of the underlying document standard or the DRM standard. So really, at this point, nothing is resolved.
I believe the two biggest problems are as mentioned: The incompatible DRM standards (requiring multiple reader programs) and the pricepoints being too high. No one will buy an ebook if the paper copy is cheaper.
Now if they can agree to the rest we'll have someting!
--Chris
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07-13-2006, 04:24 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 35
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I've always liked Repligo, because it formats the text so cleanly both on a pocket pc and a smartphone. And, I can print directly to Repligo from any application.
All of my ebooks are in PDF format though. I just convert them on the fly to Repligo when I want to bring one along on my handheld.
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07-13-2006, 04:57 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 211
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by tendomentis
I've always liked Repligo, because it formats the text so cleanly both on a pocket pc and a smartphone. And, I can print directly to Repligo from any application.
All of my ebooks are in PDF format though. I just convert them on the fly to Repligo when I want to bring one along on my handheld.
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Repligo is cool, but it doesn't work as well as I'd like for some formats. For PDF files (after conversion), though - it's awesome. I just wasn't able to easily use it to move around with just the D-Pad, something I really look for when reading an e-book. Generally, I'll try to convert my docs to HTML/RTF and then zip them. I can then use uBook to read the resulting file.
There are even some PDF Converters available in Open Source, though the names are escaping me right now. Useful to convert the PDF to HTML or something that can be read with a more lightweight reader. 
-Pete
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07-13-2006, 05:55 PM
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Banned
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 64
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RepliGo works anytime, anywhere. It handles any printable information, and everything is printable.
Btw WHO cares for a so-called "ebook standard" anyway? RepliGo is my standard, since YEARS now!
Heck, you could even use the Adobe Reader as "your personal" standard, just the same way as with RepliGo, but then the Adobe Reader has a much worse performance and eats a huge amount of CPU-power constantly.
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07-13-2006, 06:13 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 193
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by cgavula
It appears that all they've done is agree to a container standard. Not that that isn't a huge thing, it speaks nothing of the underlying document standard or the DRM standard. So really, at this point, nothing is resolved.
I believe the two biggest problems are as mentioned: The incompatible DRM standards (requiring multiple reader programs) and the pricepoints being too high. No one will buy an ebook if the paper copy is cheaper.
Now if they can agree to the rest we'll have someting!
--Chris
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I've never seen an ebook that was more expensive than a paper book
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07-13-2006, 06:15 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 169
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When it comes to ebooks for novels, I only purchase ebooks now. I haven't purchased a hard cover or paperback book in over 5 years. I use ereader books only as the DRM is easy to use, and ports over to as many devices as I want. If I change my credit card number, then I just redownload the books with the new card number and I am off and running again.
As for the price point of the ebooks, well this has been debated for every also and will continue to be debated. For me, I have come to the conclusion that I am willing to pay a convience fee for having books readily available when ever I want them. If I want to purchase a book while sitting at my son's soccer tournament and start reading it I can, can't do that with a paper back book.
I realize and understand the arguments made for the lower price of ebooks, but I also understand that there is a bit more work to getting books into an ebook format.
I think the fact that there hopefully will be a standard container for ebooks is a huge step forward. Now it will allow us to pick the reader we want based on the functions of the reader itself, one of which might very well be the DRM that that particular reader uses.
My biggest gripe on ebooks, is that not all authors or publishing companies will release books in this format. Hopefully this will change and I am starting to see many more titles available as each year goes by.
-Eric
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07-13-2006, 06:19 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 211
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Tierran
I've never seen an ebook that was more expensive than a paper book
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Almost every book I've looked at has been more expensive. Maybe that's changed recently, but generally speaking - if I want to buy an e-book shortly after it comes out in hardback, the book should be cheaper than the hardback. It doesn't require nearly as much overhead to provide me that e-book. No warehouse, no distribution, no seller, no shipping, no printing cost. The only costs associated would be royalties for the publisher/author, storage/bandwidth costs which should be minimal for all but the most popular/large e-books, and whatever time is spent on converting/protecting the book (which should be pretty minimal unless doing a lot of bookmarks or other custom features). Even giving the author and publisher slightly more money, the cost should not come out to nearly as much as producing a paper book. Still, the costs have really kept me from buying a new book in e-book format despite the convenience.
Also, if you're seeing them for approximately the same cost as the paperback, please share the website(s). I'm sure others will be interested as well. 
-Pete
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