For the past 15 years, Amazon has done everything not to support ePub, this time it’s there, the step is (almost) crossed.
It is the story of a giant of the net which repeats itself. While competitors such as Sony, Barnes & Nobles and many other e-reader manufacturers have chosen to support the ePub format, Amazon has chosen to rely on another format, .mobi, inherited from its acquisition of the French company Mobipocket in 2005 and the .AZW, a .mobi repackaged by Amazon.
In theory, therefore, the Kindle reader only supports its own format so as to push the user to go through the Amazon catalog for his purchases. To read an ePub, you had to go through the Caliber software to convert it before sending it to the reader. A tedious additional step that can push the consumer towards other models.
Because the online offer of digital books has greatly expanded and many publishers are offering them at reduced prices, in some cases offering a larger share to the author. A selling point, a way for the reader to support his favorite author and above all the risk for Amazon of seeing customers turn away from the Kindle which complicates their lives.
The almost compatible ePub format
Amazon would therefore have decided to support the ePub format, but not natively. Concretely, the Kindle will still not be able to read an ePub directly, but the application will convert it to the KF8 format which is technically not an ePub.
The web giant therefore persists in not directly supporting a “universal” format (reminiscent of a certain brand with an apple), but at least it simplifies the life of users who might get tired of going through third-party software like Caliber.