At Balloon Juice, mistermix worries about the future of the ebook market:
The existence of a digital music dystopia was thwarted by an open standard (MP3), the existence of high-quality digital copies (CDs) that could easily be converted to MP3, and music sharing services like Napster. This made consumers demand players that could play their existing MP3s, and it gave them an alternative when labels were screwing with them by releasing content on a format they couldn’t play.
Unfortunately, there’s no eBook equivalent of CDs and MP3s, so, for example, if you want to buy the book associated with the popular movie The King’s Speech, you can’t get it on your Kindle, but you can get it on your Nook. Even though the book is out in paperback, you’ll still pay the hardback price on the Nook ($9.99) which is 7 cents less than the price for a paper copy that can be resold or given to a friend who has a Kindle, which can’t read Nook ebooks (and vice-versa).
This is a completely legitimate concern, but I'm not sure if an open standard is necessary for eBooks. With digital music, open standards were the only way a user could circumvent proprietary players like the iPod or Zune. The same might be true of dedicated eBook readers like the Kindle or Nook, but it definitely isn't true of tablets like the iPad or Galaxy Tab, which can run software from all of the major eBook stores.
That is, the major difference between the digital music market of the late 90s and early 2000s and the eBook market of today is that eBook distributors -- Amazon, Google, Barnes & Noble, Apple -- are selling software in addition to books and devices. As long as the software is cross-platform -- and as tablets supplant dedicated readers -- then you don't actual need an open standard. If you own an iPad, you can buy any book from any eBook vendor and read it, as long as you've installed the proper software (which is a cinch). The real danger would come from eBook vendors locking down their software for particular hardware platforms. But with a competitive market for tablets and eBooks, I don't see that happening.
All that said, as the main format for a variety of "off-brand" readers and Google Books, the "ePub" format does serve as a de facto open standard.
-- Jamelle Bouie
