New York — As Amazon is rapidly assuming the way of Apple in the e-book world, and now in a direct challenge to Amazon, Sony seems to be secretly hatching plans from number to position to switch its electronic book store to an open system that will let customers read a wide range of materials on the company’s e-readers in order to unseat the king.
Sony, in a direct challenge to Amazon’s Kindle, unveiled plans on Thursday that its line of e-readers will henceforth support the open ePub standard by the end of the year, according to The New York Times. EPub is a common file format for digital books being developed by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF).
The Japanese electronics powerhouse said the move “allows Sony to make its e-book store compatible with multiple devices and its Reader devices open to multiple sources for content.”
Sony said it would discard its proprietary copy-protection software on the Reader in favor of a cross-platform anti-copying software solution developed by Adobe.
One alternative is relinquishing e-books from the DRM they come saddled with. The company announced late Wednesday that it would adopt ePub, a book publishing open-standard pushed by companies like Random House and HarperCollins.
“There is going to be a proliferation of different reading devices, with different features and capabilities and prices for a different set of consumer requirements,” Sony’s president of digital reading Steve Haber told The New York Times. “If people are going to this e-book shopping mall, they are going to want to shop at all the stores, and not just be required to shop at one store.”
Embracing an open format for e-books is becoming increasingly important ever since Amazon reshaped the e-reader market with the launch of its Kindle devices. Sony followed by reviving its Reader devices, and Plastic Logic plans on releasing an impressive looking reader by 2010. But today most e-books you buy are locked onto a specific device, making it impossible to switch from say a Kindle to a Sony Reader or vice versa.
“With a common format and common content protection solution they will be able to shop around for the content they want regardless of where they get it or what device they use,” Haber said.
The ePub format was developed by more than 60 companies and organizations and has received the support of the International Digital Publishing Forum.
“Our intention is to lead by example,” said Haber. “A world of proprietary formats and DRMs creates silos and limits overall market growth,” Haber added.
Both companies are moving quickly because other competitors are looming in this market.