Mobipocket

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Mobipocket.com
Type Public
Industry Software
Founded 2000
Headquarters Paris
Key people Thierry Brethes, Founder;
Nathalie Ting, Founder;
Martin Görner, CEO
Products Mobipocket Reader
Website www.mobipocket.com

Mobipocket SA is a French company incorporated in March 2000 that produces Mobipocket Reader software, an e-book reader for some personal digital assistants (PDA), wireless telephones and desktop operating systems.

The Mobipocket software package is free and consists of various publishing and reading tools for PDA, smartphones, cellular phones and e-book devices (Symbian, Windows Mobile, Palm OS, webOS, Java ME, BlackBerry, Psion, Kindle and iLiad).

History

Mobipocket.com was bought by Amazon.com in 2005.[1] Amazon's acquisition was believed to be a result of Adobe Systems’ announcement that it would no longer sell its eBook packaging and serving software.[2]

An alpha release of the Java-based version of the mobipocket reader was made available for cellphones on June 30, 2008.[3] There is also a reader for desktop computers running Microsoft Windows, which also works with computers running Mac OS X and Linux using WINE.[4]

It has been widely reported that since Amazon's acquisition of Mobipocket, software support, user support, and platform growth was ended. In December, 2011, it was reported that Amazon officially notified the book publishers that it was ending support for Mobipocket.[5] The status of Mobipocket Digital Rights Management (DRM) content previously purchased by users continues to be unclear since currently no other ebook reader supports this proprietary DRM method.[6]

Design

The software provides:

  • A personalized press review using the Mobipocket Web Companion, an automated content extraction tool dedicated to press articles.
  • eBooks, including for each book a biography of the writer. Each downloaded eBook is registered in the My Mobipocket personal virtual library, from which a user has access to any previously downloaded eBook.
  • A secure reading system, as a result of the encryption of eBooks using DRM and unique signature, a timestamp added to each book at the time of purchase.
Mobipocket on a Psion Series 5 PDA (with further information)

Depending on the device, different functions are available. Those are usually managing of books and their metadata, assigning books to arbitrary categories, auto-scroll, rotate by 90° or 180°, bookmarks, custom hyperlinks within one or between different documents, highlighting, comments and by sketches. When transferring documents to other device types, functions that are not supported on the device will be ignored, but the information one is reading will not be altered or deleted.

Implementations

There is a reader for personal computers that works with either encrypted or unencrypted Mobipocket books.

Unencrypted Mobipocket books can be read on the Amazon Kindle natively, as well as in Amazon Kindle programs on Mac OS X, the iPhone, Android devices, Windows, and Windows Phone devices. By using third-party programs such as Lexcycle Stanza, Calibre or Okular, unencrypted Mobipocket books can also be read on Mac OS X, the iPhone, Android devices and Linux. Third party tools exist to decrypt encrypted Mobipocket books, allowing them to be read using software that does not support encryption.[7]

A user can thus create documents in the Mobipocket format .mobi[8] (which is the same as the Palm OS format .PRC[9]) and use personal comments, bookmarks, and so on on all devices supporting those features. Additionally, Amazon offers a free program called KindleGen that can convert or create documents in the Mobipocket format[10]

As of 2012 there is no way to print or export the text of an encrypted or secured Mobipocket file, nor the personalized additions, using third-party application.[11]

Despite great demand from owners of Android based mobile phones,[12] Mobipocket has not released a version for Android. Owners of Android devices can download Amazon's Kindle application from the Android App store,[13] which can read .mobi files, though no official Mobipocket reader for the Android platform has been released.

Long term plans for the Mobipocket platform are in question in the wake of Amazon's announcement of the Kindle Format 8,[14] which moves in the direction of HTML5 and CSS3. As one of the most popular e-reader devices,[15] the Kindle has great sway in the popularity of e-reader formats.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Franklin sells interest in company, retires shares". Philadelphia Business Journal. 2005-03-31. Retrieved 2011-05-05. 
  2. ↑ "Amazon.com Acquires Mobipocket". DRM Watch. Retrieved 2011-05-05. 
  3. ↑ "Mobipocket Alpha program — eBook reader for Java phones". Mobipocket.com. 2008-08-22. Retrieved 2011-05-05. 
  4. ↑ "WineHQ - Mobipocket Reader". Appdb.winehq.org. Retrieved 2011-05-05. 
  5. ↑ Hoffelder, Nate (2011-11-02). "RIP: Mobipocket 2000-2011". The Digital Reader. Retrieved 2012-07-22. 
  6. ↑ "Mobipocket eBook Format Is Gone". eBook Reader Software. 2012-01-12. Retrieved 2012-07-22. 
  7. ↑ "DeDRM plugin for calibre: the simplest option for removing DRM from most ebooks". Retrieved 2012-07-22. 
  8. ↑ "MobileRead Wiki - MOBI". Wiki.mobileread.com. 2011-04-22. Retrieved 2011-05-05. 
  9. ↑ http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/PRC
  10. ↑ "Kindle Publishing Programs". Amazon. "KindleGen is a command line tool used to build eBooks that can be sold through Amazon's Kindle platform. This tool is best for publishers and individuals who are familiar with HTML and want to convert their HTML, XHTML, XML (OPF/IDPF format), or ePub source into a Kindle Book." 
  11. ↑ "mbp reader, export mobipocket notes". idleloop's site. May 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-22. "This package reads a .MBP file, which ... would contain annotations, corrections, drawings and marks made by the user on the book content."  Libre (GPL 3) command line tool written in Perl.
  12. ↑ "Please Develop a Mobipocket Reader for Android OS". Mobipocket: Support & Community. 2010-12-28 to 2012-06-24. Retrieved 2012-07-22. 
  13. ↑ "Kindle". Android Apps on Google Play. Retrieved 2012-07-22. 
  14. ↑ "Kindle Format 8". Amazon. Retrieved 2012-07-22. 
  15. ↑ Newman, Jared (2011-12-15). "Actual Kindle Sales Figures: More Than 3 Million Sold So Far". Today @ PCWorld. Retrieved 2012-07-22. 

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