14 DAY TRIAL // People may not have heard of Rakuten, but those who did, especially people from Japan, know that it is the world's third-largest e-commerce company, and the biggest in Japan for that matter.
As such, when a product becomes the most sought-after in terms of orders (or pre-orders, such as the case may be), it means that a potential game changer is ready to rumble.
The Kobo Touch e-reader is the one that currently holds the highest number of orders. It will start shipping through Rakuten on July 19.
It is easy to guess the main reason behind this: the price of ¥7,980 ($100 / 82 Euro). That's right, the 6-inch item will sell for even less than it does in the US and Canada.
Amazon probably won't find many customers when it finally extends the Kindle Touch's availability across the borders and seas.
All that's left is for publishers to digitize more content and consolidate their electronic books into one big online library somewhere.