ereader for library?

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by meeera

None of these long-obsolete devices have Overdrive integration, as far as I know. We're talking about the Overdrive integration experience.

At that time, Kobo was not yet owned by Rakuten.
And now it is Overdrive - Kobo had no dependency on Overdrive then, but also now.

I, for one, would not rely on a reader producer to support a library vendor in perpetuity - which no longer belongs to its owner.

But very well the applications published by him

[Quoth]

Hasn't Rakuten now sold Overdrive?

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Hasn't Rakuten now sold Overdrive?

KKR Completes Acquisition of OverDrive.
KKR.

KKR is a leading global investment firm that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, credit and real assets, with strategic partners that manage hedge funds.

Kobo no longer has a connection to Overdrive.
How long this works - I do not know, but would not rely on it.
Kobo has nothing to gain from a connection to a lending library, because the library no longer belongs to its owner.
Now it prevents purchases in its own store.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

State and country can be synonyms.

Pop quiz: Joseph Biden is a head of state. Which state is he head of?

State of Confusion

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

KKR Completes Acquisition of OverDrive.
KKR.

Kobo no longer has a connection to Overdrive.
How long this works - I do not know, but would not rely on it.
Kobo has nothing to gain from a connection to a lending library, because the library no longer belongs to its owner.
Now it prevents purchases in its own store.

By supporting Overdrive, it helps sales.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

By supporting Overdrive, it helps sales.

However, the profit is not in the equipment sales, there is often even compensated from
- the profit from book sales.
By supporting a lending library, the device producer is hurting himself twice:
- No profit on devices
- Competition in book sales.
As a rational thinker, I would stop supporting a library with which I no longer have any connection.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

However, the profit is not in the equipment sales, there is often even compensated from
- the profit from book sales.
By supporting a lending library, the device producer is hurting himself twice:
- No profit on devices
- Competition in book sales.
As a rational thinker, I would stop supporting a library with which I no longer have any connection.

But the way that Kobo supports Overdrive is through their store. Each time someone borrows and/or reads a book using a Kobo device or app, they have some exposure to the store. Kobo might consider this good advertising. And they will have statistics for how often library users buy books. Plus, they might even be getting money for each download of a library book.

And the case I forgot: I bet there are plenty of occasions where someone tries to borrow a library on the device, see that it is out and there are several people ahead of them, and just buy the book instead.

And as a rational thinker, I would think very carefully before you removing function that might impact my customers. Especially function that I used to sell that product to those customers.

And the basic problem with this sort of discussion is that we know absolutely nothing about what is happening. We know the function exists, but, we don't know what the deals are behind the scenes, we have no idea how many people actually use the function, we have no idea what any of the companies involved are thinking.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Where do you get this rubbish that Overdrive on Kobo only works in 12 states?

"States" is another word for countries.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by tomsem

It’s been awhile since I did it, but it used to be possible on Kindle to use the web browser to go to overdrive.com and borrow books directly (you also have to login to amazon as part of that). But it was not very user friendly. I don’t know if it is still possible, there are many sites the web browser does not work with.

It's still working. I tested when I first responded in this thread. I wasn't sure, it's been that long since I tried it.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You put 12 states before this.

I think he meant states as in...

A political body, or body politic; the whole body of
people who are united under one government, whatever may
be the form of the government; a nation.
[1913 Webster]

... nations.

I think the U.S. is unique in calling its divisions, "states." I may be wrong about that.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by meeera

States or countries?

The terms can be synonymous.

For example, here's a list of sovereign states on Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states

Sovereign State as defined by Wikipedia...

A sovereign state is a political entity that is represented by one centralized government that has sovereignty over a geographic area. International law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population, defined territory, one government and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states.[1] It is also normally understood that a sovereign state is independent.[2]According to the declarative theory of statehood, a sovereign state can exist without being recognised by other sovereign states.[3][4] Unrecognised states will often find it difficult to exercise full treaty-making powers or engage in diplomatic relations with other sovereign states.

I think, worldwide, this how the word "state" is more commonly understood.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I think the U.S. is unique in calling its divisions, "states." I may be wrong about that.

You are. It's not even the only "United States" in North America.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

State and country can be synonyms.

Pop quiz: Joseph Biden is a head of state. Which state is he head of?

Sorry for my redundancy. Should have read further down.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

By supporting Overdrive, it helps sales.

I'm also pretty sure that Kobo gets some kind of royalty from Overdrive. Amazon is in the same position as Kobo with its Kindles and I'm guessing they're not part of Overdrive for their health. (I could be wrong, but I'm guessing both get some kind of percentage.)

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

You are. It's not even the only "United States" in North America.

I guess you're right. Mexico calls their divisions "states" I believe. I know Canada doesn't. But how common is this practice worldwide? I think it's pretty rare. (Wrong about that also — about 13 countries call their political divisions "states.")

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ons_by_country