Amazon Dropping Microsoft & Adobe e-Book Formats

If you like to order e-books in the Microsoft or Adobe format from Amazon, you'll be interested in knowing that Amazon has decided to no longer offer those formats in the future, concentrating instead on their proprietary Kindle format and the Mobipocket format, which they also own. Here's the article from Publishers Weekly:

Amazon.com has notified its publisher and author clients that it plans to cease offering e-books in the Microsoft Reader and Adobe e-book formats. In the future, the online retailer says it plans to offer only e-books in the Kindle format (for wireless download to its Kindle reading device) and the Mobipocket format, both of which are owned by Amazon. The online retailer’s note asks publishers and authors to make sure that Amazon has written permission to offer their books for sale in the Mobipocket format.

Amazon did not specify how long the Adobe PDF and Microsoft formats will continue to be available. A search of the site turns up mostly technical works and e-docs in PDF form and very little in the Microsoft format. Amazon offers tens of thousands of titles in the Mobipocket e-book reader software, which allows e-books to be read on a wide variety of handheld mobile devices. The company said it will now be urging customers to buy e-books through Mobipocket. Amazon also sells more than 200,000 titles for use on the Kindle.

Good thing I use the Mobipocket format for reading e-books on my laptop and BlackBerry.

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