Ebook Format War: There Will Be Blood « It's the small things that make a difference.

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There is a war going on. A war for a format. And until there is a universal format for ebooks, the consumer will be the first to lose. But many companies will lose, too.

Electronic books have slowly gained momentum in the last ten years among consumers, even though they’ve existed for at double that amount in time. And with the release of the Amazon Kindle in late 2007, ebooks for the first time had center stage attention from the media, and from average consumers.

Differently from the VHS/Betamax format war in the 80s and the Blu-Ray/HD format struggle recently that Blu-Ray appears to have won, there aren’t only 2 big players in the ebook format war, there are many. Almost every ebook reader device maker has a proprietary format that can be read on the device. Amazon’s Kindle, Sony’s Reader, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Bookeen’s Cybook, iRex’s Iliad, Hearst’s Skiff; all of them are on the playing field, and none of their content plays nice together. Wikipedia has currently listed 26 ebook formats, and the number most assuredly will go up before it comes down.

Why are there so many players in the ebook market?

Creating one’s own ebook format is relatively easy, since the encoding is mainly text for most ebooks now and therefore conversion costs are not high. Establishing partnerships with publishers to offer content consumers actually want is the meatiest part of this market. Publishers have it in their best interests to sell as many books as possible, and therefore in as many formats as possible, but not all of them are interested in every format.

When the content distributors like Amazon or Sony put conditions on pricing, royalties or exclusivity that’s when the consumers lose. The fact that your favorite book is not available in your preferred ebook format may well be a problem of the publisher, as many content distributors claim. It may also be that these publishers refuse to accept the conditions set by that particular content distributor, or that the publishers agree to accept contracts of exclusivity from one content distributor and therefore lock themselves out of other formats. Several publishers are still wary of ebooks cannibalizing their existing markets and of piracy.

DRM, Digital Rights Management, is another cog in the wheel for the consumer. It keeps the reader from being able to convert an ebook that they bought (or licensed, as Amazon says) into another format that’s not the original. Therefore, portability between devices is almost non-existent, and a guarantee for the consumer that they will always be able to read ebooks they buy well into the future is a novel concept. Can you imagine having to buy a new music library every time you changed stereos?

There has been an attempt to create a universal standard, in the form of EPUB, an open standard created by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). Recently it’s had some major wins as Sony’s Reader and Barnes & Noble’s Nook confirmed support for this format on their devices. But it’s not a perfect solution, and has been criticized as a format best suited for text-only books and not adept for comic books or other graphic novels and ill-suited for the inclusion of enhanced features like video and audio.

Now with rumors of the Apple Tablet circulating speculation is once again on high alert for the future of ebooks. Rumors of Apple talking with several publishers has indicated that it is probable Apple will enter the ebook market. But what stance will they take? What existing format will they support, or will they create their own? Will it have DRM?

Perhaps it will come down to two major players: Amazon and Apple. Apple has the clout and the infrastructure to become a major player from one day to the next, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they announced some big partnerships from day 1. Amazon has already announced some pre-emptive moves ahead of Apple’s press conference on the 27th in the form of an application store for the Kindle.

Stay tuned for the blood.

Interested in learning more about ebooks?

Follow the upcoming Tools of Change for Publishing conference by O’Reilly – much of the conference focuses on the future of digital publishing and many conference materials are released online later
The New York Times agrees it’s Apple vs. Amazon in the ebook war
Discover all the ebook formats on Wikipedia, or read a Guide to Ebooks if it’s all new to you

photo by wizziebob / CC BY-ND 2.0