Aura One unavailable until "early 2017"...

[Braid]

Originally Posted by Kobo Aura One page

This eReader flew off the shelves. More stock coming early 2017.

Anyone else find this quite hard to believe?

Maybe it really does take months to manufacture the Kobo Aura One, and it also takes months to manufacture the Sleepcover for the Kobo Aura One. And maybe Kobo really did sell ten times as many of each as they had anticipated. That is one way of interpreting things.

But, it seems unlikely to me. The KA1 is their flagship reader. Obviously it was released to coincide with Christmas. I simply cannot see how it would take months to manufacture some more Sleepcovers. What seems more likely to me is that Kobo have decided to stop selling the units because of the high proportion of refunds they are receiving.

So, I'm beginning to regret jumping to purchase mine so quickly. Maybe it is plagued with all kinds of bugs and malfunctions that later versions won't suffer from.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Braid

Anyone else find this quite hard to believe?

Maybe it really does take months to manufacture the Kobo Aura One, and it also takes months to manufacture the Sleepcover for the Kobo Aura One. And maybe Kobo really did sell ten times as many of each as they had anticipated. That is one way of interpreting things.

But, it seems unlikely to me. The KA1 is their flagship reader. Obviously it was released to coincide with Christmas. I simply cannot see how it would take months to manufacture some more Sleepcovers. What seems more likely to me is that Kobo have decided to stop selling the units because of the high proportion of refunds they are receiving.

Making a simple assumption that Kobo was taken by surprise by the number of units sold as it is supposed to be their flagship with a price point a lot higher than their other ereaders though not quite up to Amazon's flagship pricing. Add in that from chatting with one Chapters/Indigo employee, their sales for the Aura One were higher than expected and yes, having it sell out faster than expected is not hard to believe.

Considering that the displays from eInk, the coating from HZO, pretty much all parts of the supply chain have their own lead times and delays are going to happen. Six to eight weeks delay from the original announcement would take us into 2017.

For the sleepcover, there I can see a redesign happening. The material used in the cover should not trigger the capacitive touch screen.

Originally Posted by Braid

So, I'm beginning to regret jumping to purchase mine so quickly. Maybe it is plagued with all kinds of bugs and malfunctions that later versions won't suffer from.

Interesting that you had to say maybe. May I inquire as to what issues is your KA1 suffering from that keep you from reading ebooks on it?

[robko]

Originally Posted by Braid

Maybe it really does take months to manufacture the Kobo Aura One, and it also takes months to manufacture the Sleepcover for the Kobo Aura One. And maybe Kobo really did sell ten times as many of each as they had anticipated. That is one way of interpreting things.

Of course it doesn't take months to actually manufacture more, but what you're not thinking about is the fact that they likely aren't being built in a factory that strictly builds KA1's. And of course it would be multiple factories by the time you're talking the individual components too. And these factories will have been booked to produce KA1's, then booked to produce product B, then product C etc. well in advance of starting production. This will be booked a quite a ways in advance so they can't just instantly start producing more KA1's on demand. They have to wait in lane for available production time. And I do suspect that it was a much bigger hit than they figured it was going to be.

[johnnyb]

Originally Posted by robko

And I do suspect that it was a much bigger hit than they figured it was going to be.

Could also be that it was a much bigger flop quality wise, which is why they had to exchange so many of them...

[Desdinova]

I don't think a flop is the likely case, seeing as the level of negative posts here about it are roughly the same as the H2O did at launch, and the others.

If something goes wrong, people post. Very few people feel the need to post "hey another day and nothing wrong" - as a result, forums like this give a skewed perception reinforced by those who HAVE suffered a problem now together posting and reinforcing the perception bias.

[johnnyb]

Originally Posted by Desdinova

I don't think a flop is the likely case, seeing as the level of negative posts here about it are roughly the same as the H2O did at launch, and the others.

If something goes wrong, people post. Very few people feel the need to post "hey another day and nothing wrong" - as a result, forums like this give a skewed perception reinforced by those who HAVE suffered a problem now together posting and reinforcing the perception bias.

Question is: How many people whose Ones are faulty don’t even bother to look for a place to vent but simply return their devices (or swap it for another one).
And while the H2O wasn’t a bad device by any means, it wasn’t a hit either...

[llcj]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

Question is: How many people whose Ones are faulty don’t even bother to look for a place to vent but simply return their devices (or swap it for another one).
And while the H2O wasn’t a bad device by any means, it wasn’t a hit either...

Do you have stats to backup your statements or is this anecdotal?

[Desdinova]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

Question is: How many people whose Ones are faulty don’t even bother to look for a place to vent but simply return their devices (or swap it for another one).
And while the H2O wasn’t a bad device by any means, it wasn’t a hit either...

Those stats are unattainable - so it all becomes rumour and conjecture.

[Desdinova]

Personally, I think the truth may lie somewhere in the middle - but considering the rave reviews (on the whole) the Aura One has got, and the fact that as far as the average consumer is concerned ebook readers are a two horse race (Kindle and Kobo - and even then more people probably know of Kindle then Kobo) I don't think its likely there is any other explanation here than demand.

Kobo, not being as huge a known name in the ereader market as Kindle probably aimed their sales estimate low - even they said themselves they weren't sure that the device would be a hit. On the whole, the 6" size factor dominates the market and my guess is between the two new devices they probably made far more Aura '16's then Aura One's - and are now possibly kicking themselves that Xmas is coming and their stock numbers are low.

I've never understood the tribalism about tech. Kobo vs Kindle, Android vs iOS. People vent about issues yes, but then you get the tribalism playing a factor.

And funny you say about the H2O - I went from an H2O to an Aura One as my Xmas upgrade. So far, I am very very happy with the new Kobo.

Its not perfect, true. I'd like some changes but on the whole I get really good mileage out of my Kobo's and they get well used.

[cerem0ny]

Also consider as a marketing tool statements like "ALL DEVICES HAVE COMPLETELY SOLD OUT" , "MONTHS LONG BACK-ORDER" "SOLD TEN TIMES AS MANY DEVICES" etc. in regards to a new release. They have a very positive effect on sales and marketing the device as well. Apple are the pioneers of this - I am certain that in their case they deliberately produce a smaller-than-required set of devices so that it does inevitably sell out very quickly. This stretches out the hype of the release for months and months. Although in Kobos case im not quite sure if it was planned but rather a lucky fluke... though how much luck is involved in producing my most favourite ereader ever im not sure! But Kobo must have known they were onto a winner...?
Good luck, its worth the wait. The sleepcover is beautiful too! :P

[Braid]

Originally Posted by Desdinova

Personally, I think the truth may lie somewhere in the middle - but considering the rave reviews (on the whole) the Aura One has got, and the fact that as far as the average consumer is concerned ebook readers are a two horse race I don't think its likely there is any other explanation here than demand.

After reading some of the informative responses in this thread, I am slightly less incredulous about unexpectedly high demand being the sole explanation. Still not totally convinced. The Sleepcover being out of stock as well - I imagine that would take less time to manufacture, and most of us can agree that it doesn't work the way it is supposed to. So maybe they put the brakes on producing the Sleepcover until the design is fixed.

Originally Posted by Desdinova

I've never understood the tribalism about tech. Kobo vs Kindle, Android vs iOS. People vent about issues yes, but then you get the tribalism playing a factor.

I find brand loyalists can make it very frustrating to discuss products on an open forum. There used to be a die-hard Kobo fan on a forum I use... anything Kindles do, Kobos do better. Unless Kobos do not do it better, in which case it cannot be a worthwhile feature or advantage.

I carry both my H2O and Kindle Voyage around with me. They are both very good in their different ways. I've installed Koreader on the H2O so it can display PDF almost as well as the Voyage does. I stupidly hoped Kobo might improve the PDF performance for the Aura One since its bigger screen will attract people who read that file format. They didn't, so I'm currently dragging my feet to install Koreader on it, and say goodbye to Kobo's gorgeous menus and fonts and operating system.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by llcj

Do you have stats to backup your statements or is this anecdotal?

I have never seen any publicly available stats. What I do hear from a Chapters/Indigo employee is that their return rate on the KA1 is not significantly higher than on other electronics they sell. However, this information comes from one B&M store and not the whole chain so a relatively small sample which may/may not be representative of their overall sales/return ratio.

I also wonder about johnnyb's source for his comment about the H2O.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Braid

I find brand loyalists can make it very frustrating to discuss products on an open forum. There used to be a die-hard Kobo fan on a forum I use... anything Kindles do, Kobos do better. Unless Kobos do not do it better, in which case it cannot be a worthwhile feature or advantage.

I think there is one group that is worse. That is the group that doesn't own an X, but will claim in a forum that you cannot ever do something with X without using another program first.
When in fact, if you have the correct format you can do the something without involving another program.
I hate when people like that disparage things because they heard from company Q that is how company A works when A and Q are in direct competition.

[Braid]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

[...] the group that doesn't own an X, but will claim in a forum that you cannot ever do something with X without using another program first.
When in fact, if you have the correct format you can do the something without involving another program.

Sorry if I'm misreading your post... it kinda sounds like you are referring to me... ?

(Just in case you are - I do own a Kobo H2O and a Kobo Aura One and I know they can both display PDF files but I find it quite an unusable experience and is much better using Koreader (on the H2O). That's only my opinion... perhaps some people find Kobos decent for reading PDF.)

I haven't yet encountered anyone who exhibited that specific behaviour you have described. It does sound annoying.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

Question is: How many people whose Ones are faulty don’t even bother to look for a place to vent but simply return their devices (or swap it for another one).
And while the H2O wasn’t a bad device by any means, it wasn’t a hit either...

The Aura HD was supposed to be a limited edition Reader. But it sold enough that stopped being limited. Then came the H2O to replace the Aura HD. Given that the H2O sold well enough, Kobo went ahead and came out with the Aura One.

The H2O is a very good device. Mine is very good. The screen is even, no blotches, colors, shades, etc. The light is very even. There's just a very small shadow at the bottom of the screen that does not get in the way. And battery life is very good. So I'd give the H2O high marks from my personal experience.