Last week, Sony announced that it had revised the pricing structure of its e-books to compete with Amazon and now it is being reported that Sony will only sell its books in ePub format by the end of the year. Sony has always allowed ePub books to be read on the readers but now all of its books will be sold in the format as well. This move will also allow Sony’s titles to be read on other devices that support ePub.
According to an article from The New York Times, Sony is also planning to do away with its proprietary digital rights management software and utilize Adobe software to restrict how the e-books can be shared. The article notes that Sony and Adobe hope that their efforts will help move the e-book industry to a common standard so that one company can not dominate the business like Apple did with digital music.
Steve Haber, president of Sony’s digital reading business division commented, “There is going to be a proliferation of different reading devices, with different features and capabilities and prices for a different set of consumer requirements. If people are going to this e-book shopping mall, they are going to want to shop at all the stores, and not just be required to shop at one store.”
