View Single Post
Old 10-05-2012, 01:31 PM   #55
scrapking
Evangelist
scrapking ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.scrapking ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.scrapking ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.scrapking ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.scrapking ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.scrapking ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.scrapking ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.scrapking ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.scrapking ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.scrapking ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.scrapking ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
scrapking's Avatar
 
Posts: 467
Karma: 1073260
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Victoria, BC
Device: Kobo Vox, Kobo Glo
Quote:
Originally Posted by jswinden View Post
I had the Kobo Touch but it was buggie. They kept trying to get the FW to work right, but only made it worse. So I returned it. I think outside of Canada they don't have much of a following. I certainly don't consider them a major player.
Kobo is a major player internationally, not just in Canada. You're right that they're #1 in Canada (47% of the market there, Kindle only 23%), but Kobo's also reportedly #1 in France. Kobo's #2 in Australia and New Zealand (behind Sony, and ahead of Kindle, in both cases). Recent partnerships in the UK, the Netherlands, Portugal, Italy, and Brazil have raised Kobo's profile in those countries, and Rakuten is pushing Kobo aggressively in Japan now (a market Kindle has yet to successfully enter).

There are a lot of markets that Kobo is ahead of Kindle now, and the list continues to grow with Kobo's new partnerships. Kobo's strategy is to partner with major brick-and-mortar chains, rather than try to drive them out of business as Amazon is trying to do, which is winning Kobo allies all over. The U.S. market remains tough for them, though, no question, since with the closing of Borders there now is no major unaligned chain to work with. It'll be interesting to see if working with independent U.S. bookstores starting in 2013 nets Kobo dividends in that market or not.

Whether you see Kobo as a major player or not, the industry does.
scrapking is offline   Reply With Quote