UK Booksellers Partners with Kobo to Launch New E-reader

[L.J. Sellers]

It's Kobo's second European deal this week.

WHS: "From the middle of October, we will launch a range of WiFi e-reading devices, including the first WiFi touch screen e-reader widely available in the UK. All of the devices will have access to over 2.2 million titles."

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/wh...-e-reader.html

[ShellShock]

I noticed yesterday that all purchases at whsmith.co.uk now go to the kobo estore (you need a kobo account too). There seems little point in using whsmith.co.uk now - might as well go straight to kobo. Pices seems competitive with Amazon.

[pdurrant]

Note that from 28th December 2011, it will no longer be possible to access any ebooks bought through the previous WHSmith ebook store.

This doesn't mean that people will immediately lose access to their books. Downloaded ebooks should work on any device registered to your Adobe ID.

But it does mean you'll have to be very careful in your back-ups, and make sure that you don't lose access to your Adobe ID.

WH Smith are advising all customers to re-download their ebooks, to make sure they have a copy before 28th December 2011.

In addition, it means you won't have access to any updates made to the books you've bought, if those updates are released after 28th December 2011.

I bought Unfinished Tales and The Silmarillion through WH Smith. Bother.

[SensualPoet]

It's an amazing step forward: WHSmith full details here - http://www.whsmith.co.uk/ebooks.aspx

And, according to the FAQs, WHSmith will be shutting down its ebook store in late Dec. A process is being worked out to ensure books can be transferred (this worked very well with Borders to Kobo).

Another nice perk is working out a solution so WHSmith gift cards can be used in the Kobo store. Currently, Kobo supports credit cards, paypal, its own gift cards (http://www.kobobooks.com/egiftcards) ... adding third party cards is excellent.

Lastly, the pricing of the Kobo WiFi and Kobo Touch -- £89 and £109 respectively -- is competitive with other players, Kindle and Sony.

Slowly and surely, Kobo is making good on its global ambitions extending its retail reach one market at a time. UK, Germany, France -- all live during the past month or so ... can Spain, Italy, Netherlands be far behind?

[SensualPoet]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

This doesn't mean that people will immediately lose access to their books. Downloaded ebooks should work on any device registered to your Adobe ID.

Note that this includes any future devices registered to your Adobe ID as well -- not necessarily a Kobo-enabled one. The risk still resides with Adobe's financial health, not the bookstore or device vendor. But one must, as you note, remain vigilant and actually download any books you have bought and keep your own back-ups. If they work out the library transfer to Kobo, so much the better.

[mikaelalind]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

Slowly and surely, Kobo is making good on its global ambitions extending its retail reach one market at a time. UK, Germany, France -- all live during the past month or so ... can Spain, Italy, Netherlands be far behind?

I don't know about Spain, Italy or the Netherlands, but I do know that Kobo is rumored to be working on a launch in Sweden either late 2011 or early 2012. Reading about the way they are collaborating with local stores, makes me wonder if Kobo are negotiating with Adlibris? Or maybe Dito?

[CommonReader]

While their German store is live I have failed to see any information on where their reader might be purchased.

[murraypaul]

Seems more like 'UK Bookseller gets out of eBook business, redirects customers to Kobo'
(Although describing Smiths as a bookseller is a bit of a stretch)
Smiths have previous sold a number of different eBook readers, it isn't clear whether that will continue to be the case, or whether they will only sell Kobo readers.

[Rand Brittain]

Is this likely to involve any of the UK-only books I previously bought at WH Smith becoming available on Kobo?

[b0ned0me]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

Seems more like 'UK Bookseller gets out of eBook business, redirects customers to Kobo'
(Although describing Smiths as a bookseller is a bit of a stretch)
Smiths have previous sold a number of different eBook readers, it isn't clear whether that will continue to be the case, or whether they will only sell Kobo readers.

Yeah, I got my PRS505 dirt-cheap from WHSmith. It came with a voucher for (IIRC) £10 of ebooks from the WHSmith ebook store. Using that voucher led me to the conclusion that I frankly didn't care what their selection was or what their prices were, I was never ever going back. The customer experience was not unlike chasing an angry wasp up one trouser leg, through one's underpants, and down the other trouserleg - unnecessarily complex and painful.

I've not used the Kobo store myself but providing it is merely 'adequate' this should be a big step forward for UK e-book buyers. I will be checking it out as soon as I have worked through my latest Baen bundle.

[wallcraft]

All the ebooks on my WHSmith wishlist had a “Product Not Available” hyperlink today, but fortunately when I clicked on these links all but one was still there after all.

[MikeB1972]

The biggest problem with Kobo is tha lack of shopping cart, everything is straight to the checkout - makes it a pain for buying multiple books - still at least they accept paypal to save trouble with your credit-card company.

[SensualPoet]

Originally Posted by CommonReader

While their German store is live I have failed to see any information on where their reader might be purchased.

http://www.redcoon.de/c02230100-Ebook-Reader

There was a press release and a blog posting at http://blog.kobobooks.com about this recently.

The Kobo Touch is offered at €149 but I'm not sure, given the new UK pricing, if that's going to change.

[SensualPoet]

Originally Posted by MikeB1972

The biggest problem with Kobo is tha lack of shopping cart, everything is straight to the checkout - makes it a pain for buying multiple books - still at least they accept paypal to save trouble with your credit-card company.

If you are going to shopping at Kobo on a somewhat regular basis, you can purchase a Kobo gift card and send it to yourself. It can be paid for with Pay Pal or a credit card. That makes it easy to handle the small sales especially.

http://www.kobobooks.com/egiftcards

I've reloaded a couple of times; it's very easy and seems foolproof. Any discounts (like $2 off or 15% on select titles) still fully apply.