At the end of 2007 we made 10 predictions for 2008. Many predictions made have now been conveniently forgotten but we stand by our thinking at the time and believe it appropriate we openly review these individually and see what we think happened and assess them appropriately.
Prediction
1. Content – a significant rise in volume as more publishers realise that this is not a ‘wait and see’ game. PDF will be dominant over XML and we may well see the epub standard start to become a real consumer format standard and be fully adopted by ereaders. The publishers with established digital programmes will start to digitise their development process based on XML.
Well PDF has certainly dominated over XML as many continue to watch the market. We have seen the predictable industry endorsement of epub and although there is much support and noise behind it there is a reluctance to fully embrace it today. We have yet to see the industry bodies embark of a comprehensive education programme of best practice and much is still based on the good old follow the leader approach and publishing house class system.
In 2008 Adobe released its ACS4 sever and this will obviously further push both PDF and epub, but epub is far from winning the race. Perhaps the key is the mobile platform and the whole issue of reflow and perhaps that is why Adobe backed ACS4.
Publishers are starting to look seriously at digitising their development process and this is becoming a hot area of focus which is aided by Mike Shatkin’s ‘Start with XML First’ research and conference programme.
A safe 9 out of 10 do you agree?
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