Apple apparently supplying own DRM to ePub books

While not official confirmation, I'm sure that Adobe themselves would know if Apple licensed ADE for their new book venture on the iPad.

In a blog post mostly complaining about Apple continuing to snub Adobe's Flash for mobile devices, Adobe's Adrian Ludwig mentions:

It looks like Apple is continuing to impose restrictions on their devices that limit both content publishers and consumers. Unlike many other ebook readers using the ePub file format, consumers will not be able to access ePub content with Apple's DRM technology on devices made by other manufacturers.

So there you have it, Apple is apparently putting their own DRM on top of the ePub file format, presumably something similar to their "FairPlay" technology. This brings to two the number of ePub compatible devices (the nook being the other) whose content from their vendor's stores can't be played back on other readers. Note this does not stop you from viewing ADE ePub files on the nook or iPad. The nook supports ADE, and the iPad runs existing iPhone apps which include Barnes and Noble's own reader, amongst many others.