Quote:
Originally Posted by robko
I realize you are negative toward Kobo as company but come on. Get over the fact that it is in the Kobo terms of service, because the chances of Kobo putting full fledged on a non-special offers version is so low as to be non-existent. The outrage and legal challenges that would follow if they tried would sink the company. I have no doubt it was in the terms of service to cover the ones that came with special offers.
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I'm not negative towards Kobo. I have a realistic attitude toward them, as reflected by their actions since I've become a customer of theirs. I want Kobo to succeed, for the same reasons that I bought the Touch in the first place: I like their features, and I want there to be some competition to Amazon.
Furthermore, Kobo as a company doesn't bug me. I believe that Kobo could strongly use some management with experience in producing consumer electronics devices as well as management that has some experience in software development lifecycles. Kobo's testing is horrible, there is no way that some of the bugs that get released weren't found in alpha testing. I also firmly believe that Kobo has to stop screwing things up.
But, getting back to the topic in question, while my post in this thread as tongue-in-cheek, it does have some seriousness to it.
Kobo has shown that they will place marketing considerations above technical considerations when developing the software of their devices.
As at the latest release, the Home screen has six distinct menus on it, two of which are related to my books (Reading and Library), three are related to marketing (Discover, Find Books and Wishlist) and the last is Reading Life, and I'm not sure which category that belongs to (but since I have it turned off, I'm quite happy to put it into the marketing category).
I can easily see Kobo management deciding to pump ads onto the sleep/power down screens. The language in the Terms & Conditions (or whatever they are calling it) allows for this. I don't think Kobo would be that stupid, though. But if they did do it, the howls would be relatively short-lived, and Kobo could weather that storm, considering who the alternatives are (and people have already laid out the money for the devices).