I met with the head of Kobo today...

[ficbot]

When the Kobo reader was announced, they had a local number as their press contact so I was able to go in today for an interview. I got a loaner unit of their new device and had a very interesting two-hour-long conversation with Michael, the head of Kobo. It was so nice to chat with someone who knows his stuff and had real power with the publishers!

We talked about a ton of stuff. I will be doing a big write-up for Teleread in the next few days. But there were two points I wanted to share right away:

1) Their goal is pretty much word ebook domination, with software for every device available in any market everywhere, and content from the major publishers plus local ones wherever they can get deals. They are therefore much more customer service oriented than some other retailers I ave dealt with *cough* fictionwise *cough*

2) He told me to expect it to take 'a couple months' for the agency mess to sort itself out, but not to panic. He said they have already received numerous emails from content partners with price changes just in the last few days---in other words, requests to lower a price. The publishers are basically lemmings who see what the other ones are doing, freak out that they are not doing it, and copy. So some prices have already come down, and Random House was never really in it in the first place. It will take time to sort out, but he thinks it *will* sort out and said that publishers are already friendlier to him than they were last year and are starting to recognize that e-stuff if the future. There is no conspiracy to sabotage the e-market. They just have no idea what they're doing.

Great meeting, super-nice guy. I'll have more later.

[SensualPoet]

There's an interview with Michael Serbinis in the National Post, published on Beethoven's most recent birthday (Dec 16), marking the occasion of the CEO's very first press interview, here: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/b...come-quot.aspx

It will be interesting to see how aspirations in Dec pan out in May.

Looking forward to your thoughts on the Kobo reader!

[JSWolf]

So how is Kobo's reader?

[ficbot]

Well, I only have a demo unit so not all the features are implemented yet. It's very sleek, very light and small, very pretty. I think it will be a great entry-level reader for someone who doesn't care about fancy features like text to speech or dictionaries and just wants to read books. I think wifi would have been a better choice over bluetooth, and I am still playing around with the options. We'll see

[Shopaholic]

Any word on when they're going to let us use Chapters gift cards to pay for ebooks bought on Kobo? That would be REALLY smart. It would also be rather wise considering that Chapters stores will be selling the Kobo unit. If someone was buying one as a gift wouldn't the perfect addon be a Chapters gift card?

[wallcraft]

To me, Kobo is trying for world domination by using a closed environment with their own ebook format. For example, if I have a DRM-free ePub (say from Baen) how do I get to read it using the Kobo app on (say) an Android phone? So far as I can tell, Kobo mobile apps do not use ePub and can't import non-Kobo ebooks.

I can buy a Kobe ebook and download it as an Adobe ePub, but at that piont I am better off using a non-Kobo ebook device because I won't be fooled into thinking that they have a homogeneous environment across all the devices they support. Amazon does have a homogeneous environment, e.g. syncing and bookmarks works across all devices and apps. I can also use Calibre to produce a "Kindle" ebook (i.e. a MOBI), I can't use Calibre to produce a "Kobo" ebook because its format isn't even documented.

[TallMomof2]

If Kobo is interested in dominating the market then they should add a lot more publishers. I mostly buy from small independent publishers and I find Kobo's selection of books lacking.

[ficbot]

Shopaholic- I asked about that and they said that is underway, and not only that, but those will not be the only gift cards they accept. For example if they are selling at Borders in the US, they may accept Borders gift cards too.

Wallcraft- I don't know about phones, but on this device, you CAN load any book you want. There is a Kobo desktop app which came on the device which is not working yet (I only have a test unit and it has not been fully implemented). But drag and drop, I could load any epub I wanted. I am having trouble zooming on some of them, not sure why. But the ones from Mobile Read look great.

[MaggieScratch]

Kobo seems way more clueful than just about all of the other retailers so far. They've come a long way; I wasn't impressed with my initial trial of Shortcovers about a year ago, but I think their store is great now. The books work great on my Pre and my EZReader.

[MaggieScratch]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

To me, Kobo is trying for world domination by using a closed environment with their own ebook format. For example, if I have a DRM-free ePub (say from Baen) how do I get to read it using the Kobo app on (say) an Android phone? So far as I can tell, Kobo mobile apps do not use ePub and can't import non-Kobo ebooks.

I just use another app to read non-Kobo books on my Pre (pReader works pretty well). I realize that's not an ideal solution for everyone.

You do have to be careful; not all books are available for ePub download, so they would only be available on the phone or PC/web. They seem to be mostly public domain things that are available elsewhere, anyway.

Originally Posted by wallcraft

I can buy a Kobe ebook and download it as an Adobe ePub, but at that piont I am better off using a non-Kobo ebook device because I won't be fooled into thinking that they have a homogeneous environment across all the devices they support. Amazon does have a homogeneous environment, e.g. syncing and bookmarks works across all devices and apps. I can also use Calibre to produce a "Kindle" ebook (i.e. a MOBI), I can't use Calibre to produce a "Kobo" ebook because its format isn't even documented.

I left a question for ficbot in the Koboreader thread--can the Bluetooth sync be used to sync the bookmarks etc.?

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by ficbot

1) Their goal is pretty much world ebook domination, with software for every device available in any market everywhere, and content from the major publishers plus local ones wherever they can get deals. They are therefore much more customer service oriented than some other retailers I ave dealt with *cough* fictionwise *cough*

Are they planning on ever carrying non-DRM'd ebooks? (I suppose probably not; they'd have to explain the differences, and they don't seem to be set up to do that. As it is, they don't clearly state what format the "mobile" files are.)

2) He told me to expect it to take 'a couple months' for the agency mess to sort itself out, but not to panic. He said they have already received numerous emails from content partners with price changes just in the last few days---in other words, requests to lower a price. The publishers are basically lemmings who see what the other ones are doing, freak out that they are not doing it, and copy.

And I expect that to be *endless* fun to watch. Like a multi-line trainwreck. Because publishers really don't have the business mechanisms set up to watch the day-to-day market and take advantage of small shifts in public preferences, so they're going to be playing catch-up with each others' promotions and bargains.

I am very much looking forward to the opportunity for small publishers to jump heavily into the ebook market with $5-10 non-DRM'd ebooks and the ability to say, "we'll work with you to make sure this is readable on your device, whatever that is!" Small publishers are flexible enough to assign people to ebook customer service; big publishers are still trying to treat them like pbooks: if you've got a problem, go back to the store that sold it to you and deal with their refund policy.

There is no conspiracy to sabotage the e-market. They just have no idea what they're doing.

I don't think there's a conscious conspiracy, but there are attempts to keep the current/previous publishing model (complete with the ~50% returned book rates) as long as possible, and treat ebooks as an entirely *additional* revenue source, unrelated to previous markets. They don't want to allow ebooks to affect print sales, and they don't know how to prevent it other than keeping the prices high enough that nobody chooses ebook over print because of price.

[JSWolf]

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[ATimson]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

As it is, they don't clearly state what format the "mobile" files are.

"Mobile" files are ones that you can only download directly via the application on your iPhone, etc.; they're not a file that you can download on your computer and sideload to your device.

[ficbot]

But if you buy the 'mobile' book on your mobile, you can then go to the website at home and download the epub.

[ATimson]

Originally Posted by ficbot

But if you buy the 'mobile' book on your mobile, you can then go to the website at home and download the epub.

If it's a book with an ePub. Most have them, but not all. (For example, about half of Ian Douglas's books are web/mobile-only.)