Today Sony will unveil a new plan to adopt the open ePub format for all digital books on the reader, dropping the company’s digital rights management software in the process.
The move mounts a direct assault on Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) and the Kindle, an e-reader with a proprietary file type that prevents users from reading Kindle books on other platforms. According to the New York Times, Sony will convert all files to the open file ePub format by December, allowing users to share books on a host of other devices, including Plastic Logic reader and the iPhone Stanza e-reader. The format will be used on all Sony readers, including the $199 Pocket Edition (pictured, via).
Here’s more from Sony’s digital reading unit president Steve Haber, quoted in the article: “There is going to be a proliferation of different reading devices … 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.”