New Kobo: Nia

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Kobo usually announces at 9 am eastern (or so I thought), I'd wait another few minutes.

I do not know anything about a launch this week (and I'm not playing coy).

I didn't know about the 9 A.M. announcement time – I just knew that these announcements sometimes (always?) seem to happen on Tuesday. Thanks.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Thanks for the link. I liked that they're looking to diversify their manufacturing vendors into other areas. I'm curious how that will play out.

From the link...

That is lesson everybody has learned.
Germany, for one, is starting up a native electronics industry (from design to chip fabbing) because they realize the techno!ogy base of a country determines the degree to which it controls its future.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/techn...st/ar-BB15fiOK

The US has always known *that* but it allowed too much *production*, especially of medical feedstocks, to move out of the country. There is now an effort to activate the production capacity most recently shut down, in Puerto Rico, because it can be quickly restored.

https://nypost.com/2020/03/07/corona...n-puerto-rico/

The pandemic has shown that border control and local sourcing of at least a minimum of essential supplies is critical to the well-being of a nation, putting an end to the hoary old "distributed competitive advantage" underpining globalization.

Come crisis time, even friendly nations put local needs first.
To say nothing of hostile ones.

There's a new normal coming to global trade.
It won't be just union heads screaming for "build local to sell local".

eReaders are an interesting example given that the core technology under eInk was developed by Philips but instead of exploiting it themselves, they sold it off.
My first eReader was from the Netherlands, too, even if it was a tweaked and rebadged Taiwanese build. By now almost all ePub ereaders are from the same ODM company, Netronix. With them crippled, so are all their customers.

Hence the wait for Nia.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

My first eReader was from the Netherlands, too, even if it was a tweaked and rebadged Taiwanese build.

Guess: BeBook One (aka Hanlin V3)? That was my second.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

Guess: BeBook One (aka Hanlin V3)? That was my second.

Yup.
Mostly running OpenInkpot firmware.
Things have changed a bit since those days.

For one thing, in those days, 35,000 units a year was worth crowing about.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Yup.
Mostly running OpenInkpot firmware.
Things have changed a bit since those days.

OpenInkpot! Fond memories of that. Pity that it never went anywhere in the end. Yes, how things have changed...

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

OpenInkpot! Fond memories of that. Pity that it never went anywhere in the end. Yes, how things have changed...

Would you beleive I still have it running on a couple old ereaders?

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Would you beleive I still have it running on a couple old ereaders?

Great . It worked very well on the many incarnations of the Jinke/Hanlin V3. IIRC, there even was a reader that used it as native OS (Hanvon 516?).

But it died in the end. Pity.

Edit: Close. It was a Hanvon N516, yes, but rebadged by Azbooka

[mirage]

Kobo's US site has the Clara HD on sale now for $99. I wonder if that suggests that they're trying to unload inventory in preparation for the release of the Nia and/or another 6" device?

[Calenorn]

Originally Posted by mirage

Kobo's US site has the Clara HD on sale now for $99. I wonder if that suggests that they're trying to unload inventory in preparation for the release of the Nia and/or another 6" device?

... with free shipping!

The Clara has been on sale several times this year. I like mine so much I bought a second as a back-up.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by mirage

Kobo's US site has the Clara HD on sale now for $99. I wonder if that suggests that they're trying to unload inventory in preparation for the release of the Nia and/or another 6" device?

Meanwhile their "U.S. partner," Walmart, still doesn't have them in stock? Weird.

I still think the Nia is going to be a Tolino Page 2 hardware clone, but maybe I'm wrong. Kobo may be putting the Clara on sale often because they don't currently have a direct competitor to the Kindle Basic.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Meanwhile their "U.S. partner," Walmart, still doesn't have them in stock? Weird.

Why? Unless Walmart are using Kobo to fulfill the orders, they probably buy a batch and sell them. If they run out before they get the next batch, they will be out of stock for a period of time.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Why? Unless Walmart are using Kobo to fulfill the orders, they probably buy a batch and sell them. If they run out before they get the next batch, they will be out of stock for a period of time.

Part of WalMart's business is inventory control.
Which they do very well: they rarely run out of stock of items that sell, like toilet paper and cheap TVs.

By all reports, Kobos don't matter to the store managers, with stories ranging from unopened boxes lying around empty kiosks to not carrying them.

By all indications, selling Kobos was a HQ idea that most store managers see no use for so they ignore them. Most of those stores also have greatly reduced book sections too. They figure they have better uses for the floor space, maybe selling video games.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I still think the Nia is going to be a Tolino Page 2 hardware clone, but maybe I'm wrong.

I'm not sure, but I think a NIA motherboard was shown somewhere - but it was very different from that of a Page2.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Why? Unless Walmart are using Kobo to fulfill the orders, they probably buy a batch and sell them. If they run out before they get the next batch, they will be out of stock for a period of time.

It's not that simple. Walmart is supposed to be Kobo's "partner" in the U.S. It was supposed to be through this partnership that Kobo developed a U.S. presence. In the U.S., when you login into Kobo's website or into one of their eReaders, the first choice is Walmart eBooks, not Kobo. And yet Walmart seems to be constantly at the back of the line for getting Kobo eReaders in stock. My guess is that the partnership is somehow strained. Maybe Walmart pays less per Kobo device and Kobo only sells its surplus to them? All I know is that it doesn't seem to fit with the concept of "developing a U.S. presence."

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

I'm not sure, but I think a NIA motherboard was shown somewhere - but it was very different from that of a Page2.

I haven't seen anything but the battery's specs and the fact that there will be an 16 GB microSD soldered on to the board. The battery specs (1,000 mAh battery) and use of a soldered 16 GB (soldered on) microSD matches the Page 2 specs. I use that and the assumption that Kobo will want to compete with the Kindle Basic to assume (not know) that the Nia will probably be Kobo's Tolino Page 2 clone.

The writer of the following also assumes that...

https://allesebook.de/news/kobo-nia-...gelegt-981339/

English translation:
https://translate.google.com/transla...9/&prev=search