12-15-2009, 05:16 PM | #1 | |
Sir Penguin of Edinburgh
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Borders to partner with Kobo to deliver ebooks
Borders just announced a partnership with Kobo Books (formerly Shortcovers) to open a Borders branded ebook store.
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******** Amazon-0, everyone not Amazon +1 Okay, that's a bit simplistic, but I'm pleased to see the one, the ebook market is getting crowded; and two, most all the new stores only sell Epub. Each new store is 1 more blow against vendor lock in, and 1 more blow in favor of universal compatibility. |
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12-15-2009, 05:18 PM | #2 |
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for the info - will be interesting if I will still be able to buy books from them. Would hate to see the geographical restrictions locking me out. Will definetly keep an eye on it
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12-15-2009, 06:25 PM | #3 |
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Kobo's mobile applications are device neutral, which will enable consumers to purchase eBooks from Borders on popular smartphones such as the iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm Pre and Android, as well as other devices.
Where have I seen that before. Oh yeah, Amazon and B&N. It does not say "And other readers", just other devices (phones?). Do we know if Kobo has epub's that work with Sony and other ereaders? |
12-15-2009, 06:28 PM | #4 | |
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12-15-2009, 06:29 PM | #5 |
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So are those the big 3? Amazon, B&N, and Borders now all have their own eBook distribution venues? Does Chapters have one?
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12-15-2009, 06:43 PM | #6 |
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Chapters-Indigo owns Kobo, so yes, but you can't use Chapters-Indigo gift cards at Kobo as far as I know.
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12-15-2009, 07:04 PM | #7 |
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With Sony taking the Borders branding off of their ebook store it only makes sense for Borders to to try and compete with B&N for a share of the ebook market. I say competition is good.
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12-15-2009, 08:44 PM | #8 |
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I say this is bad. Shortcovers was the only Canadian store. I liked that about them. I hope this doesn't change things for me. I feel that Fictionwise has been very unfriendly to non-Americans ever since the takeover by B&N...
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12-15-2009, 09:42 PM | #9 |
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Indigo still controls 58% of Kobo. They've also partnered with REDGroup in Australia and a Chinese conglomerate Cheung Kong (who are mostly in real estate and development but own the "social media" mobile manufacturer, phones that concentrate on connecting to social media, INQ).
Kobo has also partnered with Smashwords and, of course, Internet Archive, so I think it's fairly safe to say they're the most 'open' of all major retailers. Also, all geographic restrictions are imposed by publishers, all device restrictions are imposed by the devices. Anyway, 1.8 million books available free world wide on... well, everything but the Kindle. |
12-15-2009, 09:49 PM | #10 |
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Nope. The books at the Internet Archive are freely available as downloads from IA and they come in Mobipocket. So really the content is available everywhere but the Kindle Store, but it's still available for the Kindle.
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12-15-2009, 10:04 PM | #11 | |
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12-15-2009, 10:44 PM | #12 | |
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12-15-2009, 10:55 PM | #13 |
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12-15-2009, 11:57 PM | #14 |
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Which is another reason the publishers are insisting on regional restrictions, of course, to help keep prices higher.
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12-16-2009, 12:06 AM | #15 |
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When will they learn? They changed the interface and took out all the good bits from the old one. The old interface allowed me to sort results by published date and by ePub downloadable. Now I cannot do that so eBooks that I cannot use are mixed in and I cannot have it sorted by date. Who makes these rotten decisions?
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