What Kobo and Amazon Need to Do with Their Second Generation Tablets

August 17, 2012 By Michael Kozlowski 6 Comments

e-Reading has changed dramatically in the last two years and many users are making the switch from traditional e-ink devices to tablets. Tablets offer a wide array of added functionality, such as videos, music, email, internet, and apps. Both Amazon and Barnes and Noble developed their own ecosystems to offer added content, while Kobo relied on Getjar for its apps and then updated to Google Play. With all of these devices almost a year old, what do they have to do to remain competitive in a ever shifting landscape of tablet computers?

The first thing all of these companies need to do is adopt higher hardware level performance. Quad-Core processors are becoming the norm in offerings from Asus, Google, and other major companies. Customers expectations have reached a point where they demand a higher performing processor. There are many benefits to elevating from the dual-core level of old. Added power allows for better rendering of 1080 P video and play the most cutting edge of games. As ebook technology increases and enhanced books editions are becoming the norm, you want to be able to get the full experience without the OS stuttering. Most books have a high decree of multimedia content, such as interactive maps, audio, video, and touchscreen controls. With prices coming down on processors, due to wider industry adoption, going this route would not dramatically elevate the cost to the customer. The Google Nexus 7, which enters the markets at a little over $200.00, proves this point.

Kobo is the odd man out, in terms of a rich and expansive ecosystem. Besides its own bookstore, it does not offer anything original in terms of content distribution. Amazon and Barnes and Noble both run their own app stores and actively court developers to submit exclusive content to them. Kobo formerly relied on Getjar to deliver content to the devices, and in most cases the apps and games are tailored towards phones and not tablets. A few months ago the company received Google Certification and now has full access to Google Play. This might work out just fine, but in order to be distinctive in the marketplace, Kobo really needs to take a hard look at developing its own app store and not rely on a 2nd party to deliver it to the customers. It would give the company more control over what apps and games best work on its devices and create a greater competitive edge in the market. You might not buy a Vox, but if you can use the Kobo App Store on any Android tablet, then the brand still gets advertised.

All of the major tablets that are geared towards reading run the Google Android operating system. When you purchase anything by Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Kobo, you are relegated to tremendously outdated version of Android. Often you will see 2.3 being the standard and many top-end devices right now are running Jellybean, which is quite a few iterations further ahead. In order to deliver the best content, apps, and games, it is essential that these companies adopt Jellybean into their platform. There are some major additions to the platform such as Google Now. It functions like your own personal assistant, giving you a wide array of options to manage your daily life. There is also expanded facial recognition software to provide an extra layer of security. Tablets that are marketed as e-readers are mainly a family device, with everyone having access to certain things. How great would it be if a face unlocked your kids profile and only their books would be listed or their favorite learning games? While your face would unlock your own library and favorite zombie stomping time killer?

In essence, all of these tablets issued by Amazon, Kobo, and Barnes and Noble are woefully outdated by current standards. More than ever, customers are seeing high performing hardware at prices under $259.99. In order to remain competitive in the marketplace, all of these companies need to adopt higher performing hardware and software. These e-reading tablets might appeal to a strong segment of avid readers, but could see an increased user population of casual customers who just want a great deal. The one advantage all of these companies have is a strong retail presence. You can’t enter any store with a respectable tech section and not see a Kindle, Kobo, or Nook.

What do you think these companies need to do to warrant an upgrade from your older model or just buying one for the first time?

Michael Kozlowski

Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past ten years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and Verge.

Mrsqbookaddict

Kobo upgraded to Google Play.
Lyman

A couple of points.

On Quad core processors being necessary:

If want to be sold as general usage tablets perhaps. But as more focused eReader with some general capabilities then no.    Displaying video takes effectively zero cores ; at least the ARM ones. So having two or four makes no difference.   [ Maybe for old, legacy Flash formats, but Flash is dead on Android so it is immaterial. ] Video is typically decoded by dedicated H.264 hardware in the GPU. It uses very little CPU (ARM) or GPU ( ) cores to process.

In a general market “spec war” it might make a difference but in the markets where these tablets are focused not so much. Qualcomm’s dual core Snapdragon S4 (Krait) hold their own against the Nvidia Quad cores because they are based on a newer, better microarchitecture and implementation. Quad cores aren’t necessary if using better implemented cores and can be much more power efficient.   One of the huge gaps between Tablets and classic eReaders is battery life.

Even if could put a Quad core in one of these, it is highly dubious. One of the primary application class that can use quad cores are games. Making a “reader” focus device into a video gaming device is dubious.   One of the impediments to getting some folks to read is that they spend tons of time on competing media; like video games.

On “There is also expanded facial recognition software to provide an extra layer of security. ”

   The stuff that exists now does not enhance security at all. It is a nice gimmick but it is trivially fooled. It makes for a nice demo that the front facing camera is good for something before the user has set up a video chat app.

On ” all of these tablets issued by Amazon, Kobo and Barnes and Noble are woefully outdated by current standards.”:

   Which calls into question why make general purpose tablets at all. All three of those vendors have a Android reader app. If they have to put effect into making their general Android reader app one of the “best in class” they are effectively removing the differentiation between the general purpose tablet and their offering. Similarly Kobo and B&N have HTML 5 readers. If the “ecosystem” is layered on a software problem it is much easier to scale and control inventory costs.

    Even if want to keep the LCD panels and Android foundation the devices can be useful if solid relatively fixed function ( Maybe a 10-12 extremely focused apps).   There is no need for an app store if primary focused on selling content. Only a small number of apps are needed for content viewing.

    As Google Play gains more scope these other Andriod app stores are going to be hard pressed to show differentiation on apps. Play’s store is always going to have larger breadth.   The focus should be on trying to negating or offering a better value add to the other aspects of Play ( Books and perhaps Music ). Video is easy if just put a small handful of apps on the device (e.g, Netflix , Hulu , Cable/Sat vendor OnDemand app. )

On the other hand what is sorely missing is:

1. Larger, higher dpi , more chromatic E-ink displays. The Kindle DX is not the best that can be done. Imagine if all books were published in paperback format. Similarly, as PDF readers eReaders aren’t that good. Better anti-aliased text is large factor for books. More than 16 shades of gray would also help. 256 (8 bit) or 1024 (10 bit) grays would be better if can get the cost down.

2. Highly complete EPUB3 implementations.   EPUB3 can mean more, video but that there huge improvements to that can be made even without placing a heavy emphasis on video. Books that could actually typeset Math would greatly reduce the need for PDF documents. Likewise being able to handle the full range of world alphabets and text layout rules would be a huge move forward.   This would be moving the whole ecosystem forward but the next generation hardware would need to follow.

     Yet another round of vendor lock-in publishing formats is short sighted. It is a gimmick that may work at first but will loose in the long run.

3. If choose to continue to make specialized Android infrastructure tablet ( variants on designs already composed for the general market ) then they either need “skins’ can quickly layer on top of newer Andrioid versions so that can move deployed devices forward more easily.   The base requirements for the bleeding edge Android may conflict with the long term use of the “readers’ that they are selling. They need flexibility.
Good E-Reader

Well this post mainly talked about tablets, but Amazon is forgoing epub 3 to focus on kindle format 8. Kobo adopted epub 3 in the latest version of the kobo touch in japan, in order to do all the Japanese characters for books, manga and stuff like that. I actually asked them about wider adoption of EPUB 3 in their readers and tablets and they said they would implement it in firmware updates for the Kobo touch very soon. Also, their cloud readers only work with limited browsers, including safari, but apple said they are killing off the safari PC division, which means you will have one less browser to work with.

I agree that higher resolutions would be something to factor into their tablets, if the Apple iPad 3 taught us anything, its that pixel density really matters and content overall looks amazing on it.
Lwells1

I would love to see some kind of ‘trade up’ program. I have a Kindle, Sony, Nook and a Kobo. (yes I know – I have a problem) – It would be great if any of these companies would take my old one in exchange for a reduced price new/up graded version. The old ones could then be donated to schools or whatever. Every e-reader I own is an ‘older’ model and newer/better ones are available. I’m not going to spend the money on a new one – BUT I might – if there was a trade-in incentive! Plus I love the idea of old ones being donated – after all – they still work!
Lyman

I didn’t look at this being about tablets. It seemed more like about ereader tablets.   I think there is a huge distinction there. Twisting tablet into being defined by iPad or Nexus 7 is flawed. The diversity of lines of products that will eventually flush out this general category will be very broad.

Kobo is following the more open standards route. However, with their new parent, the commonality that Amazon , Kobo, and Barnes&Noble have is that they are primarily retailers. A tablet highly tuned to be synergistic with their business needs to be oriented around what they want to sell.   And that isn’t applications or a general Android experience. It is content.

Selling apps is a dubious business because Apps have a huge “race to the bottom” pricing built in. Most apps don’t make any more ( free or produce under R&D costs of revenue). A huge fraction depend upon ads to generate even a reasonable amount of revenue. Therefore the apps biz in many cases is simply the ads business. These three are not in the ads business.    Those are highly dubious products for retailer to engage. Selling mechanisms to sell other people’s ads is not something they should focus on.

I think that the Amazon and B&N app stores went into the curated app stores for the wrong reasons or at least the wrong focus. They appear to have more focus on the 30% skim that Apple/Google take on the action. That contrasts with taking an extreme focus on making their systems highly stable, highly easy to use, content buying and viewing devices. They don’t need 100’s or 1,000’s of apps. That is the wrong focus. It is an appliance not a general purpose computer.

Their appliances need Android in the same way Andriod needs Linux. “Android” is basically Linux with a customize layer on top. The content focused devices can just put another layer on top of Android that masks out aspects they don’t really need to accomplish the mission.

The gimmick of selling the general purpose tablet as a loss leader is hugely flawed if meant the intent to be a major player in tablets. The problem will be that people will may not follow the lead. Those primarily interested in subsized hardware will just flash the device and not spend much money if any on the services intended to recoup device costs. At that point the device is just a loss. The only path it is leading to is bankruptcy or substantive drop in stock price.