Kobo, Kindle and Nook to go Head-to-Head in $99 E-Reader War
Just when the bargain-priced tablet outlook seemed impossible to improve on, yet another $99 e-reader is joining the battle for fame and glory this holiday season. Kobo has recently announced that a $99 Kobo Touch with Offers is to be launched, which is identical to the hugely popular $130 version of the device, but in this instance will display ads when turned off, in sleep mode and also ‘discreetly’ while in use.
Needless to say, the 6 inch e-reader from Kobo has already been pegged as a direct threat to both the Amazon Kindle Touch with Special Offers and also the Barnes & Nobel Simple Touch. All three devices weigh in at the $99 mark and feature the revered e-ink screens, which can display 16 levels of gray and are said to be as close to the real reading experience as realistically possible.
Because the hardware used across the three examples is all but identical, it is most likely that consumers will base their purchase decisions n familiarity with both the manufacturer and the media ecosystem as a whole. Of course, the Kindle from Amazon pretty much rules the roost in this area, though the Nook is certainly no shrinking violet with the likes of Barnes & Nobel behind it.
Kobo, on the other hand, is not a name that is quite so well known in the US and although is known to enjoy a good deal of support and reverence in Europe and Canada, is still something off an underdog in the overall battle.
Meanwhile, this week will also be going down in history as one of the most important in another area, as the Amazon Kindle Fire and Barnes & Nobel Nook Tablet are both set to launch, hell-bent on domination of the 7-inch tablet PC market. Of course, neither is particular groundbreaking as an overall concept given the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the BlackBerry PlayBook arriving much earlier, but with prices of $199 and $249 respectively, the reception is expected to be electrifying and indeed record-breaking to say the very least.
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