Did you hear – or did you read – the news?

With all the buzz about the iPad, a lot of folks missed the part when Steve Jobs said that the new iBook app for the new iPad would use the open standard ePUB format.

No surprise to some people – like the developers at Kobo, the Canadian e-Book service from Indigo Books. (Kobo used to be called Shortcovers.)

The Toronto-based Kobo team says its app and online service will be available for the iPad when it is available for purchase.

What’s more, the Kobo app will be released for other operating systems, like Windows 7 and Android, so it can be used on various mobile devices, smart phones, tablets and slate computers.

“Kobo will begin supporting tablets running Windows and Android in February,” Michael Serbinis, CEO of Kobo, confirmed in an e-mail to WhatsYourTech.ca. “And, yes, we’re already working on developing a Kobo app for the iPad.”

Kobo already offers mobile apps for the iPhone, Blackberry and Palm Pre, as well as support for netbooks and dedicated devices, like the Sony eReader.
Its online library boasts more than two million titles from major publishers like Random House, Harper Collins, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, Penguin and Harlequin. It will be adding other kinds of publications soon, including periodicals.

“2010 is proving to be the year of the tablet,” Serbinis predicts, “so we’re working with major OEMs to ensure that Kobo apps are made available on those devices. Tablets give Kobo an opportunity to deliver eBooks, newspapers, and magazines to readers on yet another screen that is well equipped for reading,” he continued.

While running on the new OS, Kobo can remain in sync across various devices, so you can start reading on your iPhone, then switch to your tablet and continue wherever you left off.

“The synchronized experience is one of the unique features about Kobo and is completely in line with our promise to make reading available on any device,” Serbinis explained. “We want to provide the best reading experience to our users, and this feature is available to them at no additional cost.”

Core to Kobo’s ‘any device’ strategy is its aggressive support for open standards like ePUB format, designed to allow for that interoperability and compatibility. ePUB became an official standard of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) in September 2007. Barnes & Noble, Sony, Google and Kobo are among those on the open standards side. 

Amazon has been criticized for using its own proprietary file format for digital books — something known as AZW — rather than the open e-publishing platform.

So, e-Books from Amazon can only be read by the Kindle, or by Amazon’s iPhone and PC applications.

That means that books purchased from Kobo or Barnes & Noble can be used with any EPUB-compatible device, similar to how MP3 music files can be played on any digital music device.

Remember when Apple launched its iPod and iTunes music service? Remember DRM (digital rights management)? Remember how Apple eventually went to MP3, a much more universal format?

The market for e-Readers will certainly be more complicated and probably less robust unless it can support users’ desire to read digital books, from a number of different sources, on a number of different devices.

It looks more and more like the successful publishers and content providers will remain aligned with the universality of open models.

“Open standards are incredibly important to Kobo – it’s the principal behind our company,” Serbinis underscored. “While other companies remain closed, we support open standards like ePUB allowing users to buy from us and use our service on other devices or software. Open standards are also good for the eBook market as a whole because it encourages standardization and competition in the growing market.
 
As do many others, Serbinis sees that growth as inevitable.

“The future of reading is digital.  We will see tectonic shifts in the publishing, technology, and retail sectors as the various players adapt to the new world.”

Players, as in people and technology.

 

So, Whatsyourtech? What are you e-reading these days, and how?