Reply To: What can .epub do that .pdf can't?

PDF is a proprietary format owned by Adobe. Adobe is the only entity that can update it and improve it and adapt it for reading devices. People making ebooks would have to buy Adobe products or a product that could create an e-reader friendly pdf. Adobe would control the whole market. Also, the comanies with reading devices and bookstores would have to get the right from Adobe to digital rights manage the books they sell. They would probably need to get a license for each book title.

Epub is an open standard so it's better for bookstores, publishers, authors and book designers. It is html-based and a lot of people know how to edit html already. It's got a ways to go to match pdf for fixed layout. But for novels, it's already there. Novels are a huge part of the ereading market and probably what epub was originally intended for.