Quote:
Originally Posted by darryl
I think many posters seem to be missing the point. Many if not most Mobileread members are by no means typical. I am not alone in having come to realise that the average user cares about very little other than convenience, price and basic reading functionality...
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And it seems that you may have missed the point of the OP who asked what new features might help Kobo to cut into Kindle's market share. Not knock Kindle from its dominant position in the market. Just chip away at its share of the market.
In this regard, you'll notice that I specifically said such features would "tempt
more Kindle users to make the switch". Not all. Not most. Not even many. Simply more.
I don't think many people are questioning that the average user visiting these forums is not the same as the average Kindle or Kobo user. As you say, the average user of ereaders just wants to read straight out of the box. The average user would likely be very intimidated about patching and editing config files even when presented with very clear step by step instructions. The average reader would have very little need for screenshots. They could always just snap a picture of the screen with their smartphone.
However, there are a significant number of non-average users out there. Just look at the success which Remarkable enjoyed even before they had a physical product.
If Kobo were to add features which would appeal to a significant segment of the non-average reader population, they would likely attract more Kindle users over to their devices. That would eventually lead to a good number of average users purchasing their products as well.
For example, my uncle was a happy Kindle user. However, he became very interested in Kobo devices after seeing my KA1 even though he has zero interest in installing other reading software like Koreader and installing custom Chinese and Japanese dictionaries. He bought himself a KA1 and happily buys his books from Kobo now.
So, by adding useful features, Kobo may not replace Kindle. However, they will be able to chip away at their market share which seems to have been the whole point of the opening post.