14 DAY TRIAL // Prior to, during and in the wake of the 2010 international Consumer Electronics Show, there were quite a few new additions to the now-blooming e-reader market. New products and prototypes included, of course, various e-ink devices, but there were also a few color screen technologies that hadn't been launched as part of devices yet. So far, however, the king of the hill known as the Amazon Kindle hasn't exactly seen a serious competition, mostly because none of the new devices was cheap enough. E-book seller Kobo, however, might just come close enough.
Products like ASUS' e-reader are undeniably promising, but their major disadvantage lies in the fact that the companies that developed them don't have their own e-book store to provide content. Kobo, however, has over two million different titles, out of which 100 classic books will be pre-loaded on each e-reader sold. The device itself measures 120 x 184 x 10 mm, weighs 200 grams and uses a 6-inch e-ink display. It has only 1GB of internal storage, but this storage space can be increased through the use of an SD card slot.
There is one drawback that, depending on user preference, may be seen as a major defect or a minor inconvenience. Specifically, the Kobo e-reader does not feature 3G connectivity. This means that consumers will not be able to wirelessly access and download books, but they will be able to load them onto the device through the built-in USB port or Bluetooth. Granted, most end-users see wireless connectivity as a major asset of e-readers in general, but they might see past this drawback when they hear that the Kobo reader costs only slightly more than half of what Amazon's Kindle does.
The device will become available in Canada in May and will be sold through Indigo Books & Music, for a price of $149. US availability is scheduled for the summer.