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Old 06-19-2010, 10:20 PM   #1
Musketeer
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Kobo Sold Out in Australia!?

I got my Kobo a couple of weeks ago and am really enjoying it.

This weekend I have been trying to get another one as a gift, but as far as I can tell they seem to be sold out everywhere! Reading some local forums seems to confirm this. Some stores are even saying there's a waiting list

Things don't often sell out around here - not even products with the Apple hype machine behind them, so I'm guessing one of two things:

1) Only a very small allotment of Kobo's have made it down here so far, or

2) There was some crazy pent up demand for these devices here.

There haven't been many ereaders marketed down here to date, so I guess the latter is possible. I'm just pleased the Kobo guys decided to include Australia in the launch rather than wait 2 years before coming here!

But we need a few more down here ok?
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Old 06-19-2010, 10:53 PM   #2
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The later is more true I believe, though Borders probably seriously underestimated how popular the Kobo was to be.

Whilst in Melbourne last weekend on holidays, I rang Borders in the CBD to see if they had stock. No luck.

I am going to wait until the next batch comes in with the new firmware installed. For me, the Kobo sounds perfect for outside home use and for my wife's first ereader.
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Old 06-20-2010, 02:16 AM   #3
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We had the same here in New Zealand I suspect - the local Whitcoulls stores sold out the same day as the release, I got one via online about a week later. I guess the demand was substantial, and the lead time from source to Australia / NZ long. I'd image air freight would negate too much margin, and sea freight from Taiwan somewhere in the region of 21 days + plus a few days for ports / customs / devanning / and eventual distribution.

I used to work in the book retailing industry (frontline retail, distribution, supply chain) for 13 years, and it was always very hard picking demand for a new product. Sometimes the hype from overseas never eventuated locally, or something worked very well here and additional stock volume was difficult to source.

Cheers,

G

Last edited by GraemeWi; 06-20-2010 at 02:30 AM. Reason: Add Taiwan into shipping
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Old 06-20-2010, 02:41 AM   #4
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Angus and Robertson seem to have stock - according to their website, anyway. I ordered on Friday and am hoping to have mine within a week.
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Old 06-20-2010, 02:49 AM   #5
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I would take the opportunity to whine about the $100 or so difference in price between the Kobo in NZ and the same machine in Australia. But if they are selling that fast then I guess they know better than I do. I still feel we (in NZ) are being ripped off though. We get this a lot. Often it is worth flying across the Tasman to shop.
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Old 06-20-2010, 02:55 AM   #6
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Could be that there is more competition for ereaders in Australia, and the retail has to be more competitive there vs here where there is less available and margin can be maintained. Sucks for us to be in NZ sometimes! At least our milk is cheaper :-)
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Old 06-20-2010, 05:16 PM   #7
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Quote:
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Could be that there is more competition for ereaders in Australia, and the retail has to be more competitive there vs here where there is less available and margin can be maintained. Sucks for us to be in NZ sometimes! At least our milk is cheaper :-)
The retail industry is a mystery to me, it must 'work' for them to bump our prices up but we do tend to suffer from a choice of cheap and nasty or very expensive (and sometimes still nasty) when it comes to imports of anything luxury. I wasn't kidding about flying across the Tasman to shop. I'm still waiting for mail order to teach our retailers a lesson.
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Old 06-20-2010, 07:44 PM   #8
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Could be that there is more competition for ereaders in Australia, and the retail has to be more competitive there vs here where there is less available and margin can be maintained. Sucks for us to be in NZ sometimes! At least our milk is cheaper :-)
Well it doesn't surprise me that the Kobo is sold out in Australia, there is huge demand for ereaders and the Kobo is the first decently priced reader sold in Australia (otherwise for a decent price you buy internationally).

I think NZ is where Australia was at a few months ago, behind the 8-ball not acknowledging this demanding market. If competition increases in NZ the price should drop. I don't think here in Australia there is more competition to speak (perhaps locally) but Australian businesses I feel aren't acknowledging the international competition and aren't pricing themselves competitively.

Your milk is cheaper? Well you can thank us Tasmanians, we're sending you all our vegetable processing so we're helping you guys out so you should see lower vegetable prices LOL. I find it ironic that we pay around $4.50 for 2 litres of milk, yet $8.00 for 1kg of cheese (and it takes about 10 litres of milk for 1kg of cheese and it needs to be processed etc). Go figure.
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Old 06-20-2010, 08:43 PM   #9
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Well it doesn't surprise me that the Kobo is sold out in Australia, there is huge demand for ereaders and the Kobo is the first decently priced reader sold in Australia (otherwise for a decent price you buy internationally).
Also the first time that its been in a store that you can actually see and use, which I think also helps the sell through rate. I know I wasn't buying one until I looked and played with it, and then I was sold
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Old 06-21-2010, 11:20 AM   #10
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My Kobo was ordered in Australia, but actually shipped from New Zealand..
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Old 06-21-2010, 01:46 PM   #11
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The same thing happened in Canada. Sold out in most stores by the second day, with a smaller second shipment due in on the third day. That was gone in a day too.

Clearly the $149 (at least in Canada) price point pushed a lot of peoples' buttons.
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Old 06-21-2010, 02:14 PM   #12
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The same thing happened in Canada. Sold out in most stores by the second day, with a smaller second shipment due in on the third day. That was gone in a day too.

Clearly the $149 (at least in Canada) price point pushed a lot of peoples' buttons.
I just saw that Barns and Noble lowered the price of a basic nook to $149 too. When eReaders hit the $99 (or less) mark every body I have to buy for gets one for their birthday. :-)
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Old 06-21-2010, 07:27 PM   #13
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My Kobo was ordered in Australia, but actually shipped from New Zealand..
The majority of the ones from Borders website came from NZ, I had two come from there (in seperate orders)
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Old 06-21-2010, 08:26 PM   #14
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The majority of the ones from Borders website came from NZ, I had two come from there (in seperate orders)
So that explains why we Kiwis can't get any for ourselves.

Aussies!!
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Old 06-21-2010, 09:28 PM   #15
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The same thing happened in Canada. Sold out in most stores by the second day, with a smaller second shipment due in on the third day. That was gone in a day too.

Clearly the $149 (at least in Canada) price point pushed a lot of peoples' buttons.
Yeah, agreed - I think the Kobo managed to hit a price point that captured a whole lot of people who were sitting on the fence about getting an e-reader. The other brands are noticing this, hence all the overnight price cuts. If they get down below the $100USD point, a whole lot more will jump on board. In Australia they go for $199AUD which is around $175CAD.

I've had this thing for about 2 weeks now and one thing I've noticed is that people who see it and play with it tend to want one. Many of them didn't even know about ereaders, or if they did had never seen one and knew little about them. So the more of these get out there, the more sales will take off.
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