Adobe Opens E-book Store With Publishers

[DudeAsInCool]

Adobe opens e-book store

By David Becker

Staff Writer, CNET News.com

December 17, 2003 Software publisher Adobe Systems made a surprise move Wednesday to revive the faltering e-book market, opening its own online store.

The Adobe Digital Media Store offers books from major publishers such as HarperCollins Publishers, Simon & Schuster and Random House, plus links to electronic versions of publications such as Popular Science and The New York Times. All are published in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF), the company's widespread standard for the electronic presentation and exchange of documents.

James Heeger, Adobe senior vice president, said in a statement that since PDF is the dominant format for e-books, it makes sense for Adobe to consolidate available content. "The Adobe Digital Media Store showcases the huge amount of compelling content now available in Adobe PDF format and provides publishers and producers of digital content with a vital, innovative new distribution channel, through Adobe Reader," he said.

Once touted as the future of publishing, e-books--digitized books that can viewed on PCs, handheld computers and specialized reading devices--have yet to gain a significant share of the market. The format suffered a major blow in September, when book seller Barnes & Noble announced that it was dropping sales of e-books from its online store. Barnesandnoble.com had sold titles in both PDF and Microsoft Reader formats.

In a recent interview with CNET News.com, Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen blamed ill-fitting hardware choices for the slow adoption of e-books. "Until there is a device that has a similar value to what a book has, the e-book market will continue to be nascent," he said. "Today, to get a good e-book experience, you have to spend hundreds of dollars on a reading device, one that can only be read in certain environments because of lighting conditions; a device that has to be re-energized quite often, because the power consumption isn't there yet; and a device that isn't very durable."

Adobe is operating the new store in conjunction with Content Reserve, an electronic publishing specialist whose OverDrive service handles storage, delivery and transaction processing for electronic documents. Besides working with major publishers, Adobe is encouraging independent submissions of content ranging from technical reports to maps.

[DudeAsInCool]

All newspapers and books will eventually be online--even Warren Buffet believes so.

[HolyMoly]

All newspapers and books will eventually be online--even Warren Buffet believes so.

There's something Adobe isn't saying. The e-book market is NOT faltering. Only the e-book market of the BIG publishers is faltering, mostly because they rely on hand-held devices and programs that most consumers find annoying. The LITTLE e-book publishers are thriving. Case in point, iUniverse.com. They're doing just fine, have a deal with Barnes & Noble for distribution, and some of their authors go on to "traditional" publishing houses.

BTW, while newspapers/magazines will probably all go electronic eventually, I'm not so certain the book market will. e-Books will always be an option, certainly, but there's something to be said for curling up by a fireplace with a good book (that can't be said about curling up to a monitor screen). However, I think what we will see is a rise of POD (print-on-demand) books. POD will keep prices low, allow people to make choices on binding type and text size, and keep books in-print "forever" while, at the same time, doing away with a publisher's need to keep an inventory. If I were a book "distributor" or other middleman, I'd be looking for another job ... quickly.