Amazon to Allow ePub eBooks on the Kindle e-Reader

Michael, please clarify if the publishers said that Amazon told them the Kindle will physically hold and show the EPUB file — it will now support EPUB standards in its readers — or if Amazon told the publishers that they can *submit* their digital book files for Kindle in EPUB format (which is not new … Amazon does an EPUB to MOBI conversion for publishers).

It’s also the question if epub books now will work on kindle or if amazon will even sell them themselves.

 If that’s true, it would be huge news. The ebook world feels still like the early days of the music wars when ATRAC/AAC/MP3 duked it out, DRM was rampant and all players & stores were incompatible. If Amazon is moving to support EPUB, we could be seeing the first shift to an open standard. Still a lot of battles to be fought but it’s exciting to watch.

 If that is true, you indeed did break news. I guess you can call that a “face” to the other ebook bloggers out there.

Yeah I notice many different commonality factors between eBook formats and the music wars of the 90s and early 2000′s when there was no common format. It goes back further to VHS and Beta, BluRay and HDDVD, Mp3, AAC and tons of others. The e-Reader world really needs an open standard, one format to be compatible with everything. For me, I find that being locked to a specific ecosystem is being too limiting when it comes to digital media and the growth potential of it.

One specific company when listing off formats they were distributing left off Amazon, when asked they said Amazon was coming out with Big news and they were no longer submitting books in Amazons own proprietary format and that they would only be using ePub because of changes to the Kindle and the store.

That is very humble of  you. I am just going to needle them a bit, especially if they don’t credit you for breaking the news.

 This might explain why Smashwords & Amazon have been delaying a distribution agreement. In the vaguest of terms, Smashwords said it because something big and new was happening at Amazon that it wanted to be a part of. I’d assumed that meant a new and improved .mobi format. Now it looks like Amazon may be joining the ePub generation, removing any need for Smashwords to create a special conversion engine just for .mobi. That would explain the delay.

Amazon is big enough in ebooks that most publishers will produce a version just for them. But joining the emerging standard does make life less complicated for Amazon. Among other things, they were having to support a Kindle export plug-in for InDesign, one that’s apparently broken with ID 5.5. This will let them leave the ebook export headache to Adobe and others. It also means that publishers who create enhanced ePub versions for any distributor will be creating versions for Amazon. Amazon won’t be forced in a costly battle to match every feature of ePub with one in .mobi. 

In short, this isn’t just Amazon conforming with the ‘mainstream,’ a move that can sometimes be a mistake. This is Amazon (we hope) doing something that’s both smart and beneficial to the ebook industry as a whole.

Now all we need is for Amazon to confirm/deny these rumors and if confirm it be, give us the details and dates.

 This move to ePub would also support Amazon in allowing borrowing of eBooks from Public Libraries.   Public Libraries primarily license from Overdrive and primarily offer ePub as a format.

Good news for libraries is good news for readers.

Adobe ePub?

ePub is an open standard used by just about everyone except Amazon (until now!).
http://idpf.org/

 We have been delivering ePub to Amazon ever since our partnership was initiated over a year ago.  Once you upload your files through the Import Cabinet, they are then converted through an automated system to Mobi.  Spoke with our Tech and Account Rep and they basically said beyond the current use of ePub files is rumor and Amazon has nothing in the works for the near future to present titles directly from ePub.

Amazon might still lock people into its store, by developing a different type of DRM. It would allow Kindles to read non-DRM’d epubs from the growing number of indie ebook stores that offer them, without losing their lock on existing customers.

If they do that, Kindles still won’t be able to read (ADE) library ebooks, and that news will get around quickly. I’d expect them to push the claim “We do ePub too!” without mentioning that it’s incompatible with other bookstores.

I wonder if all the existing Kindles will get firmware updates, or if this is a sneaky way to push 1st-gen Kindlers–who are on the older Whispernet provider–to updgrade their devices, so Amazon doesn’t have to keep paying for two types of wireless service.

People have been asking why Don’t I mention the publishing companies by name who informed us of Amazons big plans in the near-future and the crux of this article? Mainly because it was “off the record” and If i disregarded their wishes chances are they would never speak to us again, which is not what we’re willing to do.  Also the companies themselves would be in a whirlwind of ramifications from Amazon.

You guys must be the Rodney Dangerfield of ebook blogs!.

“* It’s unclear if this is a reputable source for such gossip, so
I’ve made the decision not to link to this site. If you’re interested, a
quick look on your fave search engine will bring them up easy enough.”

If you turn out to be right, I would hope a post would be forthcoming from your detractors acknowledging your contribution in breaking this news.

Any updates?  Anything more to substantiate this rumor?

And still just a rumor.  No outside substantiation?
Too bad.

Any update on this? I’m torn between waiting for kindle 4 and getting kobo touch now.