Lexcycle Support for Adobe eBooks in Stanza Reader

NEW YORK, Feb. 11, 2009 — Lexcycle, the company behind the
award-winning Stanza electronic book reader for the iPhone
and iPod Touch, announced that it has entered into a
definitive agreement with Adobe(R) to license PDF and EPUB
rendering technologies as well as support for Adobe’s eBook
content protection technology. The integrated technology
will allow Stanza users to enjoy eBooks sold or loaned by
any retailer or library, who distribute eBooks protected
with Adobe Content Server 4.

With over 1.3 million users spanning 60 countries, Stanza is
the most popular eBook reader for the Apple iPhone. Since
its launch in July 2008, Stanza has supported the EPUB
format, the International Digital Publishing Forum’s open
XML-based standard format for reflowable digital books and
publications. To date, Stanza users have downloaded over 3
million eBooks from a selection of over 100,000, half of
which are available for free. The license agreement will
significantly expand the selection of available titles to
Stanza customers to include a wide variety of commercially
published eBooks from major publishers.
“Stanza has become the most popular electronic book reader
for the iPhone and iPod Touch by providing a great user
experience, from the discovery and acquisition of content to
the fine-tuned reading experience,” said Neelan Choksi,
Chief Operating Officer of Lexcycle. “Licensing Adobe’s
content protection technology will allow Stanza users to
have a wider selection of eBooks, periodicals, and other
content from around the world, secure in the knowledge that
the content they purchase is based on open standards.”

“Stanza is a great iPhone application and the addition of
Adobe PDF and EPUB with Adobe Content Server compatibility
will make Stanza even more compelling,” said Bill McCoy,
general manager, Digital Publishing Business at Adobe. “This
collaboration is a significant step forward for Adobe’s
overall strategy to enable publishers to deliver engaging,
high-fidelity reading experiences across a wide range of
mobile devices.”

Starting next quarter, Stanza will be able to read EPUB and
PDF files secured with Adobe’s content protection technology
from Adobe Content Server 4. The EPUB format has gained
significant traction among major trade book publishers and
industry groups such as the Association of American
Publishers (AAP). With the upgrade, Stanza users will be
able to purchase or borrow Adobe eBooks from the hundreds of
retailers, academic and public libraries who distribute
Adobe eBooks worldwide.

Availability

Stanza for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch is available as a
free download from the iTunes App Store or from
. Stanza with support for Adobe DRM
will be released in 2Q09.

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