In 2010, Microsoft launched an electronic reading revolution. A unified publishing platform that works on desktops, tablets and mobile devices, complete with crisp typesetting, inline annotations and support from major booksellers like Barnes & Noble.
Oops, sorry. I got the date wrong, this actually happened in 2000. The rest of it is true. Except that the revolution fell pretty flat.
“We will look back in five years and be very excited about what has transpired”
In the late 1990’s, a group at Microsoft led by colorful characters such as Bill Hill was working on improving electronic reading. They produced two major contributions: the ClearType font smoothing technology still in use today, and a book reading application called Microsoft Reader.
Reader automatically formatted electronic texts and presented them one screen-sized page at a time. The interface was beautifully minimal, with as little distraction for the reader as possible. (Kindle for PC designers, take note.)
Microsoft reader on Windows 98 and Pocket PC 2000.
The application was first released in April 2000 for Pocket PC, the forerunner of today’s Windows Mobile. A desktop version followed in August, and a Tablet PC version two years later.
One very powerful feature in Reader was its annotation capabilities. The user could highlight text, add their own notes and mark any number of bookmarks. There was also a convenient index containing all the annotations for a book.
The books themselves were in the proprietary .lit format, an offshoot of Microsoft’s Compressed HTML Help. Microsoft published a plugin for converting Word documents to .lit, and there were also third-party tools.
Microsoft’s first partner in their book effort was Barnes & Noble, who would sell titles in .lit format. There was a DRM scheme which required users to authenticate devices using Microsoft Passport (later renamed .NET Passport).
Going quietly into that good night
Unlike other products in the Lost Tech series, Microsoft Reader never really went away. It was simply… neglected. You can still download it from Microsoft today, although the company doesn’t seem to remember it exists.
Reader was closely tied into Microsoft’s Tablet PC vision, which steadfastly refused to generate sales. One clue about the intended device was that the desktop version had portrait-only windows. You had to either deal with a lot of lost space on the sides, or hold your laptop sideways and rotate the app.
The last update for Reader on the desktop was published in 2003. There was a version made for the failed Origami form factor in 2007. It quickly went the way of the dodo along with the Origami.
Perhaps the most damning point about the saga is that when ebooks turned hot once more, nobody at Microsoft remembered that they already have a platform. Instead of dusting off Reader, Steve Ballmer stood at the 2010 CES demonstrating Kindle software.
Oh well, at least we got ClearType. It only took until 2007 for it to become default on Windows.