What would make Kobo surpass Kindle?

[llcj]

You can register via wifi. You don't need the desktop app to do this and haven't had to in a long time. If I remember correctly, when I got my first Kobo reader in 2012 the option to register via wifi already existed.

[spindlegirl]

That's interesting. It wouldn't even scan for available wifi networks (I was at home!), my only options were "skip" or download computer desktop.
Regardless of any attempt to connect, it keeps showing me that window. It won't even scan for my home wifi. (this is something no Kindle has ever done) with me. ) This is why I am happy to be giving it away. I only had turned it on to see what it would be like. And if it's not "connect to your wifi and log in" then I'm not interested.

[Richwood]

Originally Posted by sjfan

IMO this is the biggest divide, and it's not one that's going to be talked through. To me, the Amazon ecosystem and its tendency to drive people to proprietary formats and single-vendor lock-in is the Kindle's single biggest negative. "Avoid the Amazon ecosystem" was one of my handful of top considerations when looking for an e-reader, along with screen quality, battery life, and storage space. I similarly have avoided the Apple ecosystem when there are reasonable alternatives, though I'm not a zealot about either--I had an iPhone 3GS back when the Android alternatives were ridiculously behind the curve, and I'd buy a Kindle if the hardware were leaps and bounds ahead of the competition.

For you and many others, the same ecosystem and (to frame it from the alternate perspective) its ubiquity, ease of use, and wide array of available books is a positive feature that makes it stand out as a plus.

When you have a fundamental disagreement of whether a core feature is a plus or a minus, you're never going to get agreement on "what would make product A better".

Which is fine. They're both in the market, so we can choose according to our evaluations of the relative value of various features.

Plenty of Kindle owners avoid the Amazon eco system if they choose to. The Kindle can read MOBI format files and there are multiple sources for freeware that allow you to convert Epub to Mobi if desired and then side load it. Also programs to remove protection from ebook files so they can be usedon any compatible device, if desired. So the ability is there. At the same time the Kindle environment allows simple email transfer of personal files to the cloud account for your Kindle device or devices and even independent publishers, given your Kindle email address, can email books to it.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Richwood

Plenty of Kindle owners avoid the Amazon eco system if they choose to. The Kindle can read MOBI format files and there are multiple sources for freeware that allow you to convert Epub to Mobi if desired and then side load it. Also programs to remove protection from ebook files so they can be usedon any compatible device, if desired. So the ability is there. At the same time the Kindle environment allows simple email transfer of personal files to the cloud account for your Kindle device or devices and even independent publishers, given your Kindle email address, can email books to it.

I wish I could give you more karma.

[Richwood]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I wish I could give you more karma.

I also own several Kobo and Sony e-readers so am familiar with both. Also a last generation Nook, the water resistant one. Merely stating that if any other e-reader maker wants to compete with Amazon and the Kindle in the American market they need to make purchasing and registration as easy as Amazon does. Also have as big a book selection and make book purchases as easy. Having to order a KOBO from a Canadian outlet and then waiting a week for it to reach Nevada via UPS is NOT competitive with Amazon, at least to me.

Any of the e-readers can be used independent of their stores with a bit of work. A good thing as otherwise the older Sony units would be about useless without the desktop application or side loading as the firmware on units like the PRS-950 was never updated for Kobo store wi-fi access so far as I can determine. I use the Sony and Kobo readers primarily for public domain EPUB reading. Per the below link Kobo is virtually invisible in the USA ebook and e-reader market with less than 0.5% of the total. Most successful in Canada among English speaking countries.

https://publishdrive.com/amazon-ebook-market-share/

As far as the Nook I am afraid that I suspect that B&N is not too long for this world based on reports of losses and how well their stock is not doing. I hope I am wrong. Per the above link they have 4% of the USA ebook market but are apparently not sold outside the USA. Hate to see them go the same way Borders did.

[llcj]

Originally Posted by spindlegirl

That's interesting. It wouldn't even scan for available wifi networks (I was at home!), my only options were "skip" or download computer desktop.
Regardless of any attempt to connect, it keeps showing me that window. It won't even scan for my home wifi. (this is something no Kindle has ever done) with me. ) This is why I am happy to be giving it away. I only had turned it on to see what it would be like. And if it's not "connect to your wifi and log in" then I'm not interested.

Okay, now you've got me questioning my sanity .

Your screen message might have something to do with how recent the firmware is on the device. I'm only guessing here,

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by llcj

Your screen message might have something to do with how recent the firmware is on the device. I'm only guessing here,

spindlegirl said this was after a factory reset. After a factory reset, my Touch is at firmware version 1.9.11. And some are earlier than that. Looking at the photo, it looks like the original setup was skipped. At that time, you could start using the device without signing into a Kobo account, but if you tried to do certain things, using the WiFi was one of them, it would prompt you to finish the setup.

I know my Touch let me choose between WiFi and PC setup after a factory reset. I don't remember if you get a choice if you skip the setup and start using the device. Or, that might be displayed because WiFi has been turned off. But, it wouldn't have surprised me if a WiFi enabled device from that time needed a PC to do the setup.

[compurandom]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Tolino support it. In that case, you sideload via USB and then select the books you want in their cloud. I've been told that other do as well, but I don't know who they are.

I'm not sure I'd want any of my books even indexed in the vendor cloud.
I wasn't happy when adobe was doing it, and I avoid the kindle because I certainly don't want amazon doing it. Seems like a huge privacy violation.

[llcj]

Originally Posted by davidfor

spindlegirl said this was after a factory reset. After a factory reset, my Touch is at firmware version 1.9.11. And some are earlier than that. Looking at the photo, it looks like the original setup was skipped. At that time, you could start using the device without signing into a Kobo account, but if you tried to do certain things, using the WiFi was one of them, it would prompt you to finish the setup.

Oops, forgot about that.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Richwood

I also own several Kobo and Sony e-readers so am familiar with both. Also a last generation Nook, the water resistant one. Merely stating that if any other e-reader maker wants to compete with Amazon and the Kindle in the American market they need to make purchasing and registration as easy as Amazon does. Also have as big a book selection and make book purchases as easy. Having to order a KOBO from a Canadian outlet and then waiting a week for it to reach Nevada via UPS is NOT competitive with Amazon, at least to me.

Any of the e-readers can be used independent of their stores with a bit of work. A good thing as otherwise the older Sony units would be about useless without the desktop application or side loading as the firmware on units like the PRS-950 was never updated for Kobo store wi-fi access so far as I can determine. I use the Sony and Kobo readers primarily for public domain EPUB reading. Per the below link Kobo is virtually invisible in the USA ebook and e-reader market with less than 0.5% of the total. Most successful in Canada among English speaking countries.

https://publishdrive.com/amazon-ebook-market-share/

As far as the Nook I am afraid that I suspect that B&N is not too long for this world based on reports of losses and how well their stock is not doing. I hope I am wrong. Per the above link they have 4% of the USA ebook market but are apparently not sold outside the USA. Hate to see them go the same way Borders did.

I know. I sideload on all my devices. That is why I gave you karma. It isn't that hard to sideload on either a kindle or a kobo. My only complaint with both would be pdfs. I did solve that problem. I got a tablet. Now the first ereader/MP3 player I got was called a slick. (Big Lots special). It will read any file. It is sideload only. No store. No registration. Drawback, it is super heavy.

[spindlegirl]

Originally Posted by llcj

Okay, now you've got me questioning my sanity .

Your screen message might have something to do with how recent the firmware is on the device. I'm only guessing here,

Yes, the firmware is pretty old. If I can find a way to update it manually, and it has the options you pointed out, I may hang on to it a while longer. I haven't used it for over 5 years.
(edit)
Yes. According to the "Device Information" ... it is software version 1.9.5 (r29674, June 27 2011). Is there something special I would have to do to upgrade it? Could I leap to the current version right away? or do i have to install it in stages.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by spindlegirl

Yes, the firmware is pretty old. If I can find a way to update it manually, and it has the options you pointed out, I may hang on to it a while longer. I haven't used it for over 5 years.
(edit)
Yes. According to the "Device Information" ... it is software version 1.9.5 (r29674, June 27 2011).

Wow. That must be one of the very first Kobo Touch's made.

Is there something special I would have to do to upgrade it? Could I leap to the current version right away? or do i have to install it in stages.

There shouldn't be any problems with manually installing the latest firmware. After a factory reset, I've updated my Touch from 1.9.11 to fairly recent firmware plenty of times. The "fairly recent" is only because it's been a few months since I did a factory reset. And I have done lots of them on the Touch over the years as it's subject to lots of experiments.

Have a look at https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kobo_Firmware_Releases and choose what you would prefer. And there is a link on it somewhere to instructions for installing.

[spindlegirl]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Wow. That must be one of the very first Kobo Touch's made.

Pretty much. I bought it when it first came out. I was that curious about it.

Originally Posted by davidfor

There shouldn't be any problems with manually installing the latest firmware. After a factory reset, I've updated my Touch from 1.9.11 to fairly recent firmware plenty of times. The "fairly recent" is only because it's been a few months since I did a factory reset. And I have done lots of them on the Touch over the years as it's subject to lots of experiments.

Have a look at https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kobo_Firmware_Releases and choose what you would prefer. And there is a link on it somewhere to instructions for installing.

Thank you for the advice. My husband is going to investigate this today as a "Christmas Present" for me.

[spindlegirl]

The update was successful! It's nice to see how the Kobo interface works these days. Still not my favorite, but Kobo is definitely not completely off the table if I ever come into some dough, and feel like buying one of the fancier models.

[ZodWallop]

For me, Kobo really seemed to have lost their mojo after the release of the original Aura and Glo HD.

In their current batch of models, I'm not interested in a larger screen and the Aura Edition 2 feels like a step backwards. Plus I don't like the new home screen much. I could live with it, but that's about the best I could say for it. It doesn't feel much different than the Kindle and Nook home screens.

I know they have the Aura ONE and H202, but in the most popular segment, the six inch screen size, they gave up.

If they ever release a six inch reader with 300 PPI, larger on-board storage, a flush screen, blue light filter and it's waterproof, I'd get it. Any three of those five options would do. But if my Aura turned up it's toes today, I'd either get a Glowlight Plus or just get another Aura.