Sony Reader Selling Open ePub Books Soon

The blogosphere has been busy the past few days about Sony announcing that they're going to start selling their ebooks in open ePub format. This has caused a lot of people to focus on "ePub" itself and acting like this is new for Sony. I wanted to do a quick blog entry to clear up the fact that Sony has supported ePub format since shortly after releasing the Sony Reader PRS-505 (the second-generation Sony Reader) almost two years ago.

The reason this suddenly became news is because Sony will now going to change the ebooks they sell in their Sony eBook Store from the old *.lrf format to this new open ePub format. This is fantastic, because now it means I could potentially read the same book on both my iPhone (using Stanza eReader app) and Sony Reader. I carry my iPhone everywhere, but I don't tote my Sony Reader around with me as much anymore, even though it's a better reading platform. Now I'd be able to work my way through the same novel whether I'm standing in line at the grocery store or curled up at home in my La-Z-Boy chair.

A largely overlooked benefit to the Sony Reader is that it also supports the Adobe Digital Edition books format. This is a biggie for me, because it means that if my Phoenix Digital Library has a copy in this format, I can check out the book, download it to my Sony Reader PRS-505, and I'm reading new releases on my Sony Reader for free.


Barnes and Noble has also tossed their hat into the ebook sale ring. All of this new competition is great for ebook fans because it now gives us a choice of where we purchase ebooks (provided they truly all go open format down the line). If I don't mind reading the book on my iPhone exclusively, I can compare prices between the BN ebook store and Amazon and buy the ebook from the cheapest retailer. The fact that both offer iPhone reading apps (neither as good as Stanza, but competent enough to get through a novel) means that I can shop for the lowest ebook price and send my dollars to the cheapest. My dream is that all ebook merchants go open ePub format which would allow readers to read on their hardware of choice rather than proprietary Amazon Kindle / Sony Reader configurations. They did it for mp3's, it's time to do it for ebooks!

(Disclosure: I've owned both the Sony Reader PRS-500 and the Sony Reader PRS-505, and have been reading ebooks since my first Palm Pilot Professional back in 1997. I bought both my Readers outright, I'm not employed by Sony or anything, hehe, I'm just a rabid ebook advocate).