If you’re not familiar with epub, it stands for electronic publication. It has been widely used in the eBook world and is helping to change the hold the Amazon Kindle has on the market. Epub is simply an open eBook open that allows content to be downloaded on several different devices. Since Amazon keeps their eBooks secluded to the Kindle, this will allow users plenty of other options.
Amazon holds a closed standard. This means (like we mentioned earlier) you can only download their books on their platform. Electronic publication (epub) makes it so you can download the content to your phone or another electronic device that allows it. Once you start looking at the big picture, it’s easy to see how beneficial this is going to be for consumers.
We wouldn’t consider epub to be a household term just yet, but it is gaining in popularity at a rapid rate. Oddly enough, it will work for most of the e-readers out there, except for Amazon Kindle. It also provides a more advanced approach to reading a book in this type of format. One of best examples is being able to support CSS style sheets with ease. However, this is not the only benefit available.
The epub standard also supports XHTML devices. This is a perfect solution for someone that wants to download an eBook and read it on their cell phone. Granted, the phone you own will play a major role in the quality and viewability. Androids, iPhones, and other similar choices would be the best mobile devices to use when taking advantage of epub.
Another way of looking at the benefits of epub is the future cost for devices like the Amazon Kindle. When the Kindle was first released it didn’t have any type of competition. However, the Amazon Kindle only excepts eBooks in Mobi file format—not ePub. But ePub files can easily be converted to Mobi format and Amazon will even do it for you.
In fact, we’ve already seen a huge swing in the overall price of the Kindle. Amazon has been selling it for a little over $100 in 2011. The Kindle Fire, which is less of a eReader and more of a tablet, will be released on November 15th, 2011 for $199.
One thing to understand is that epub didn’t just surface overnight. It got its start all the way back in 1998. Over the years it has been tested, tweaked, and tested again. It was the only way the International Digital Publishing Forum would be able to build a piece of software that would provide a one-size-fits-all concept.
Throughout all the potential benefits, there has been a widespread debate about epub not being as “open” as they claim. According to consumers using a Sony device, the DRM that is used keeps any book downloaded to the device from being downloaded and used properly on other devices.
While this is true, you have to be realistic about what epub has to offer. The issue with Sony isn’t something you see with a lot of the e-readers, but it is possible. Somewhere down the line we will most likely see this change, but until now it has to be expected.
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