Apple
The slim, 1.5-pound “tablet” computer unveiled last week will be linked to Apple Inc.s first e-book store when it goes on sale in a few months. The books, however, will not be compatible with Amazon.com Inc.s Kindle or with the major alternative e-book system.
Apples creation of a third choice is likely to further frustrate and confuse consumers if they accumulate e-books for one device, then try to go back to read them later on a different one. The effect could be akin to having to buy a new set of CDs every time you get a new stereo system. It could also keep people from buying new e-readers as better models come out if they arent compatible with the books they already have.
This could cool consumers enthusiasm for e-books, the way sales of digital music downloads were hampered by a variety of copy-protection schemes.
“There are going to be some potentially painful lessons” for consumers when they try to move e-books they already own to new devices, said Nick Bogaty, senior manager of digital publishing business development at Adobe Systems Inc., which provides the major alternative e-book system.
Before the iPads debut, there have been two main camps in the e-book industry.
The e-books that Amazon sells work only on the Kindle and on Amazons software, which can be loaded for free on PCs and some smart phones. Everyone else, including Sony Corp., Barnes & Noble Inc. and public libraries, have gathered around Adobes system.
Adobe doesnt sell books itself, but provides software to booksellers and libraries so they can sell and lend books that can be opened on multiple devices. Like the Kindle store, the Adobe system uses a copy-protection system that prevents buyers from reselling the books or distributing them online.
Apple would not comment about the plans for its bookstore, but Adobe said its system isnt being used by Apple.
Apple already has its own copy-protection system for iTunes and can easily extend that to e-books.
“I dont see Apple feeling like they need to come in as the collaborator. Thats not their style,” Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey said.
Apple has said it would embrace the EPUB format for its e-books. Although thats the format adopted by the Adobe camp, that alone does not ensure compatibility because Apple would be using its own copy-protection scheme on top of it.
Apple is thus set to create a third technology camp in the e-book industry. Consumers who start buying e-books and want to go back to their books after a few years would have to make sure they have a compatible device, or at least compatible software. That can be pretty complicated.
However, its unlikely that books bought from Apples store would work on non-Apple devices, except for PCs running iTunes.
So far, no media industry has managed to unite on one copy-protection system for downloads. Music retailers, including Apple, used a variety of schemes before ultimately ditching copy protection entirely as customers found the limitations to be a big hassle. Music from iTunes couldnt be moved to a digital media player linked to Microsofts store, and so forth.
Movies and television shows are still sold and rented with multiple copy-protection systems, though, so you cant move an iTunes video to a Microsoft Zune player.
Forresters McQuivey believes the division into several e-book camps will persist for years, but may eventually narrow to just two alternatives, one of them being Amazons.
He doesnt believe copy protection will ever go away for e-books. It died for music largely because CDs were never copy-protected, he noted, so consumers opted to buy them and convert them to digital files instead of buying downloads. Printed books, though they carry no copy protection, are difficult to convert to a digital format in the home.