We have seen many new e-readers announced over the course of the last two weeks. Amazon and Kobo both staged press events where they debuted the latest and greatest devices to be launched within the next month. Amazon made the grandest splash with the launching of the Kindle Fire HD and new Kindle Paperwhite. It also updated the original Kindle Fire and Kindle 4th generation with updated hardware. Kobo announced the Mini, Arc, and Glo.
These two companies are betting on an extensive lineup that appeals to most people on every price-point. The Kobo Mini and Kindle 4 are both around $79.00, while the top of the line products are a few hundred or more. We asked our readers the question on which new product are they most likely to buy and what resonates with them the most. During our two week poll over 2,403 people responded and talked about what new e-reader or tablet they have already pre-ordered or will be most likely to buy within the next few months.
In 1st place by a very wide margin was the Kobo Glo with 55.1% of the vote (1,324 votes). This new e-reader seems like the one to beat on the international stage. It features a super high resolution XGA display. The screen has a glow function which lets you read in the dark or in low-light conditions. Obviously, it still has an e-ink display, so you can continue to read it in direct sunlight with no hindrances in your reading experience.
In second place was the Kobo Arc with 37.66% of the overall vote (905 votes). This new tablet is the spiritual successor of the company’s Vox tablet. It gives you a solid Android 4.0 experience with a user interface that is customized towards Kobo’s proprietary software. You have programs like Reading Life and Kobo Pulse, which is standard fare, but also a new feature called Tapestry. Tapestry has several major elements that contribute towards a very unique tablet. The first is the ability to get supplementary information on a book that you have purchased. For example, when we opened a Steve Jobs autobiography purchased from Kobo, along the button of the screen was a wide array of content. There were Wikipedia articles, pictures, Youtube videos, interviews, and tons of other content. This is not a format for selling other media. Kobo is not saying, “if you liked Steve Jobs, buy these books.” In effect, it is simply giving you a ton of links and content available on the internet without having to go and search for them. Another example is if you are using Pintrest and pinning a picture of a new BMW car, it will give you a ton of podcasts talking about it, hundreds of other pictures, and all sorts of other information. This is a very useful tool for researching a particular book, photo, or for school projects. It gives you a ton of source material based on a book, video, picture, or anything else you find online.
These two devices dominated the poll and shows that many of the international readers of Good e-Reader are appreciating the fact that Kobo gives you a more global experience.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
