With Kobo, Borders Enters the E-Reader Fray

Kobo joins Kindle, Sony, iPad, and Nook

Borders, the nation’s second largest bookstore chain today jumped into the fight for the e-reading public with a new e-reader from a Canadian company Kobo, Inc (used to be Shortcovers). Borders owns a significant portion of Kobo, Inc.

The big advantage over Amazon’s Kindle, the Sony E-reader, Barnes and Noble’s Nook, and Apple’s iPad is price. Kobo retails for $150. The big disadvantage is that you have to download a book to a computer then transfer it to your Kobo via cable. The others all use 3G or WiFi technology allowing the user to download material directly to the device. The Kobo supports only the e-Pub and PDF formats which is somewhat limiting.

The Kobo, which has been available in Canada for a few weeks, comes preloaded with 100 classic titles.

Here’s a short video introducing the device:

Will your favorite book be available on a Kobo?

Borders says it will offer over 1 million books in its e-book store which it plans to open in June. The Kobo people say there are millions of books currently available for the Kobo from various sources, including 1.8 million free books from Kobobooks.com.

Eventually nearly all books will be available for each mobile device, so make your choice by considering the device features you like and its price point.

Just a write thought.