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I once had a CEO of a company, speaking of a rival, saying that if this rival had put him in charge of their operations in a particular region for 12 months with the brief to absolutely destroy it, he could still not do as good a job as their incumbent had. Every time B&N or Nook is mentioned, I think of this story. They were in such a good position, and had such a great opportunity, but made one bad decision after another. Kobo, on the other hand, now seem to have inherited many of the opportunities that B&N missed. The H2O is an excellent device, and it seems to me that the Glo HD is heading for real success. Kobo is offering a real alternative to Amazon. And though KIndle's are excellent devices the trend at Amazon seems to be to try to lock-down the platform even further.
Sometimes, however, I do get frustrated with Kobo. Their customer support is a disaster, both from my own experience and according to most of the accounts of dealings with them I have read on these forums. They seem to lack the visibility they should have in the US. Even buying a device from them has its problems, with Chapters providing a much better service. Their web sites have many sometimes mysterious glitches. Their EBook prices are also a mystery, and often uncompetitive without a substantial discount coupon.
Unlike many members here, I am a big fan of Amazon. I am grateful to them and certainly do not think they are the devil. But they do need good, strong competition, and I think Kobo is in the best position to give it to them in the longer term if they play their cards right. I wish them well.
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