#KOBO EREADER RETAILERS FOR ANDROID#

It was the first e-reader that really got promoted in Canada. You could buy books right on the e-reader and start reading right away. This was confusing to new users, so in October 2010 Kobo released the Kobo WIFI. The first Kobo e-reader launched in May 2010 and the first device needed people to plug their device into their computer and sideload in their own books. When Reisman was asked why she co-founded Kobo if eBook sales were going to hurt her brick and mortar business, she famously said “If my business was going to be cannibalized, I was going to do the cannibalizing.”

In fact, she was pivotal in the traditional booksellers investing in Kobo, early on. Initially Kobo was co-founded by the former CEO of Indigo Books and Music, Heather Reisman. In order to make Kobo a real business, they borrowed money from Li Ka-shing’s Cheung Kong, Boarders and Indigo and this set them up to turn this business into what it is today, second only to Amazon in the e-reader and eBook market. Indigo management was pleased and due to the success of the app, Shortcovers split off and become known as Kobo. Within a year, it was live in 200 countries and started to make millions of dollars selling eBooks.

#KOBO EREADER RETAILERS FOR ANDROID#

Kobo became an offshoot of Shortcovers, which was launched in 2009 and comprised as an eBook reading app for Android and iOS. Kobo and Chapters Indigo business relationship goes back a longways.

Kobo ereader retailers