Walmart Kobo account — automatic link now?

[rcentros]

I got a private email asking about linking a Walmart eBook account to a Kobo account. For some reason the writer's attempts were failing. So I thought I would see if I could try it, so long as I could unlink them (I'm planning on cancelling the Walmart account, I don't need the redundancy). It's been a while since I logged into my Walmart eBook account and now it appears there's no way to log in without linking to Kobo? I don't want to do that. I'm afraid if I try that and then decide to delete my Walmart account it will also delete my Kobo account. How long ago did Walmart start forcing the link to Kobo with login?

I've attached screenshots of the old login screen and the new one. Does anyone have any experience with this? Am I worried about nothing?

[ZodWallop]

I'm not clear what the problem is with linking the two accounts?

Looks like maybe Walmart is giving up their ebooks push. It does after all say 'Link to Kobo', not 'Link to Walmart'

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I'm not clear what the problem is with linking the two accounts?

Looks like maybe Walmart is giving up their ebooks push. It does after all say 'Link to Kobo', not 'Link to Walmart'

I went ahead and logged in. It's kind of odd. It didn't actually link me to my Kobo account but, something called "My Rakuten ID" (whatever that is.) It did allow me to unlink, however. Now I supposedly have the choice to link back to My Rakuten ID, or My Kobo Account (are they actually different?) or to one of several affiliates. Also I have the option to link to My Google Account?? or My Facebook Account?? Doesn't Google compete against Kobo?

As for Walmart "giving up on their eBooks push," I think you might be right. April 15th has come and gone and I see absolutely nothing different in the lame Kobo displays at the Walmarts I've been to. At least they still seem to be occasionally discounting Kobo devices (with a two day pickup option).

(EDIT: Doing a quick check, I see Walmart doesn't have the Clara or H2O in stock, these are being sold by Triplenet. I don't see this going anywhere.)

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by rcentros

As for Walmart "giving up on their eBooks push," I think you might be right. April 15th has come and gone and I see absolutely nothing different in the lame Kobo displays at the Walmarts I've been to. At least they still seem to be occasionally discounting Kobo devices (with a two day pickup option).

(EDIT: Doing a quick check, I see Walmart doesn't have the Clara or H2O in stock, these are being sold by Triplenet. I don't see this going anywhere.)

Maybe I'm extrapolating too much from too little, but the way Walmart handled Kobo and ebooks tells me they're not going to be real competition to Amazon any time soon.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Maybe I'm extrapolating too much from too little, but the way Walmart handled Kobo and ebooks tells me they're not going to be real competition to Amazon any time soon.

It doesn't look like it. The sheet that I found in August (last year) said that eBooks where going to have their own department code ("department" is probably not the right word) and it was supposed to happen some time in the middle of April. So I was kind of hoping they were going to ramp it up about now. Of course there is the new Walmart consumer tablet (supposedly competing with the Amazon Fire) coming out. Maybe they'll have another eBook push when that is released. As it stands now, what they've done is pretty pathetic.