Thread: Kobo only $79 at Borders
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Old 03-03-2011, 11:59 AM   #15
altworld
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hellmark View Post
How would it be $10 profit? Like I said, display alone is $60. Are you saying that the rest of the reader only cost $10 to develop, make, package and ship to the retailer? Also, loss leaders are generally done by larger companies that can afford it. Kobo isn't a big company, and as we all know even if Borders decided to take the loss on their end, they couldn't afford it either. Borders especially had no interest in doing that since Borders doesn't run the eBook store with their name on it (never have, Kobo runs it for them now, and Sonye ran it before Kobo).

Borders could have done things better, like running their own eBook store so they get a larger cut, and pushing things more to compete against the Kindle and Nook. Even if they couldn't afford to fund development and production of their own reader, they could have still done more to entice people to buy books from them. With 6 main publishers now on the agency model, profits are slim and differing on pricing is removed as a way to compete against their rivals. That leaves marketing and customer service, which is where they could have picked up the ball and ran with it.

As far as Kobo goes, considering the size of their company, they've done a great job on their reader, and have pushed it out to an impressive amount of stores. Usually, companies of that size are unable to do things on that scale, especially when you consider that they were simply retailers before hand.
Okay, your getting me wrong here.

The Kobo is a great eReader device, and today I posted in my book thread how happy I was to see my latest novel Accept One finally appear in the Kobo bookstore. I am very aware of it and the companies success with it.

My thoughts were how Borders had a huge advantage in being able to set up instore ebook kiosks with their huge network of store and how they screwed it up. Yes, the hit would have to be made by Borders, by buying and selling almost at wholesale price, but at worst it would of been an even exchange.

In the end its a moot point, Borders are crash diving and that is sad to see.
Arigato,
Nick Davis
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