Many critics have pointed to their disappointment in Apple for not adopting the ePub 3 format as a standard in iBooks Author.

There’s a great discussion on the latest Hypercritical that approaches this concern on a higher level (fast forward to about 30 minutes in):

5by5 | Hypercritical #51: Unjustified Confidence: “John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin briefly recap the iPhone ringer/silent switch controversy, then discuss the new iBooks Author application, Apple’s ebook ambitions and prospects, and the role of technology in education.”

I’m still betting on the realization that Apple never shows all of its cards, especially with the initial launch into an area that they want to “revolutionize.”

In my hopes, as ePub 3 becomes more standardized and catches up to what Apple is pushing users to do in iBooks Author, Apple will slowly incorporate the more open ePub standards as output mechanisms. In a way, I think Apple is helping to push the adoption and flexibility of open standards by pushing users farther ahead than they would have been pushed otherwise.

Hopefully Amazon will join this standardization evolution as well.

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