Sage End of an era.

[Cactus Chef]

Since my first Kobo Clara HD in *checks notes* 2019, the email receipt for my Kobo purchases always came from "Walmart eBooks". This is despite my never having had a Walmart eBooks account: I setup a direct Kobo account the day I got it--but because I purchased the first Kobo from walmart.com, it somehow got that vendor flag set. Even when I later got a Sage from a different vendor, or when I started purchasing all of my books through the Kobo Android app, the Walmart eBooks header remained (even though the email address was always noreply@kobo.com). The Wal-Mart/Kobo partnership dissolved some time ago, but still, my receipts came from Walmart eBooks.

I purchased something today, and the email receipt still comes from noreply@kobo.com...but the sender now says just "Kobo".

So long, Wal-Mart.

[Sirtel]

You almost gave me a heart attack. When I saw your thread title, I thought Kobo had officially discontinued black-and-white ereaders larger than 6" or something. Whew.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

You almost gave me a heart attack. When I saw your thread title, I thought Kobo had officially discontinued black-and-white ereaders larger than 6" or something. Whew.

I'm too old to read titles like that. I also was disturbed!

[issybird]

From the US POV, it seems as if the Sage has been discontinued. It's been impossible to buy one here for so long that I assume it'll never be available again.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by issybird

From the US POV, it seems as if the Sage has been discontinued. It's been impossible to buy one here for so long that I assume it'll never be available again.

Yeah. I don't know what's been going on with Kobo in recent years. No new black and white models with 7-8" screens for 4 years now and no signs there will be any; very few firmware updates for older models and they're often buggy; Kobo Desktop discontinued. Are they having financial problems? Are they planning to quit ereader business altogether? I must admit I'm worried.

[Apollyon202]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yeah. I don't know what's been going on with Kobo in recent years. No new black and white models with 7-8" screens for 4 years now and no signs there will be any; very few firmware updates for older models and they're often buggy; Kobo Desktop discontinued. Are they having financial problems? Are they planning to quit ereader business altogether? I must admit I'm worried.

I agree. Also there was an hour long interview with the CEO couple of months back, but that felt like they were intendedly avoiding the topic about new ereaders and such. That was strange and very annoying.
At the same time I wouldn't think that they have financial problems, as the parent company Rakuten could help on that. Just guessing here of course.
But there’s definitely a demand for a Libra BW or an updated Sage or Forma, yet it’s unclear why they just don’t take that step.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

You almost gave me a heart attack. When I saw your thread title, I thought Kobo had officially discontinued black-and-white ereaders larger than 6" or something. Whew.

Yeah, the title of the thread is somewhat misleading. I mis-read it, too, until I realized the word 'Sage' was the marker that Moileread set up to show that the thread is about the Sage. Then I actually read the post and realized that the OP is talking about Wal-Mart. (ADDED: I think.)

The Sage, however, is still very much AVAILABLE from Kobo's UK site. (And other places, too?)

If they would just fix that damned battery issue, I would have bought one.

Anything 'color', though, that will be released I'm avoiding like a descent into Hell !!!

[JSWolf]

Kobo need to update the Sage (no color) and and the Elipsa 2E with better processors and better batteries.

Kobo also needs to come out with a new Libra BW with a better processor and better battery as well as a Carta 1300 screen.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

The Sage, however, is still very much AVAILABLE from Kobo's UK site. (And other places, too?)

If they would just fix that damned battery issue, I would have bought one.

Anything 'color', though, that will be released I'm avoiding like a descent into Hell !!!

The Battery isn't as good as most smaller ereaders, but perfectly acceptable (only 1/2 hour to 1 hour less than a Clara BW, if the Sage front light, WiFi & BT are off). Note an 8" ereader will take about twice the power (or a bit more) for a front light than 6" due to area.

Also battery life is reduced with larger fonts, line spacing and margins as page turns eat the most power.


I agree with everything else.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Apollyon202

I agree. Also there was an hour long interview with the CEO couple of months back, but that felt like they were intendedly avoiding the topic about new ereaders and such. That was strange and very annoying.

On the U.S. site, if you choose "All Readers," you get the Libra Colour, the Clara Colour, the Clara BW and the Elipsa 2E. The Sage is still advertised, but it's sold out. All Certified Refurbished Kobos are sold out. So, if you want a BW reader from Kobo, it's the 6" Clara BW. (I consider the Elipsa a specialized device.)

I wonder if Kobo is avoiding the Trump tariffs?

Meanwhile PocketBook still offers, the Basic Lux 4 (probably remaining stock), the Verse Lite, the Verse (two models), the Verse Pro (two models), the Era (two models, 7"), the InkPad 4 (8"), the InkPad Lite (9.7") and the InkPad X Pro (10.3"). They also have color models, the InkPad Color 3 (8"), the Era Color (7"), the Verse Pro Color (two models, 6") and Color Note (10.3") and InkPad Eo (10.3", which runs on Android and might not even be considered an eReader, not sure).

I'm not sure how many of these models can be found in America, but PocketBook seems to have most in stock at their U.S. Amazon store.

I'm not advocating for PocketBook here, I'm just trying to figure out why Kobo has limited the number of their models so drastically.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I'm not advocating for PocketBook here, I'm just trying to figure out why Kobo has limited the number of their models so drastically.

We've all been trying to figure it out for a while now. It's a mystery - unless they're really struggling financially.

I don't think it's the tariffs, because Kobo isn't offering more models in other countries either (with the exception of the Sage).

[xor_]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Kobo need to update the Sage (no color) and and the Elipsa 2E with better processors and better batteries.

I'm not sure where the idea of the poor battery life of the Elipsa 2E is coming from. I've come to like mine well, and in my experience it is perfectly in line with the decent battery life of readers like Libra 2 and other previous Kobos. (Speaking of normal reading. I'm rarely using the stylus / annotations). To me the Sage is the negative outlier here.

[Quoth]

The Kobo models for UK and Ireland seem to be shipped from the Netherlands. The Sage is still available.

We have 5 Sage models in the wider family (a 6th was lost). There are also H2O, Elipsa, reMarkable, about 5 different kindles, Nia, Libra, Libra2 etc. No-one is complaining about the Sage run time, though it's not as good as Libra. The reMarkable has been passed around and replaced by a Sage twice. It's hated because it's not really for ebooks and has rubbish storage and connectivity.

[Aleron Ives]

Originally Posted by xor_

I'm not sure where the idea of the poor battery life of the Elipsa 2E is coming from.

IIRC the Elipsa 1 uses the same power-hungry CPU as the Sage, but the 2E has a better CPU and superior power management. Unfortunately, the Sage never got such an update.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by xor_

I'm not sure where the idea of the poor battery life of the Elipsa 2E is coming from. I've come to like mine well, and in my experience it is perfectly in line with the decent battery life of readers like Libra 2 and other previous Kobos. (Speaking of normal reading. I'm rarely using the stylus / annotations). To me the Sage is the negative outlier here.

Jon seems to be confusing the original Elipsa which had the same AllWinner B300 quad core processor as the Sage. That processor has become somewhat notorious for poor power management. The Elipsa 2E has a MediaTek MT8113 processor which outperforms the AllWinner B300 quad core and has much better power management.