Updated: July 13, 2020 (June 19, 2000)
Analyst ReportDeals Promote Pocket PC for Electronic Books
Microsoft has begun to line up publishers, distributors, and authoring tools for Microsoft Reader, its software for displaying and distributing books in electronic form. Reader currently ships only with the Pocket PC, Microsoft’s recently relaunched competitor to the Palm handheld computers. Reader helps position the Pocket PC as an all-in-one device for viewing books, listening to music, and surfing the Web. To attract more publishers, however, Reader needs technology to protect copyrighted books, something it should acquire when it ships for the PC in mid-2000.
Until then, Microsoft has lined up additional support for Reader on the Pocket PC, including the following:
Content. Two publishers are distributing free science fiction books in Reader format. Simon & Schuster has released 15 Reader books based on the Star Trek television and movie franchise. Random House offers a Reader version of Timeline, a novel by Michael Crichton (author of the popular Jurassic Park), free to the first 100,000 customers. This is a down payment on content until the PC version of Reader ships; Microsoft says it has lined up more than 800 books from 30 publishers for Reader on the PC.
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