Kobo has announced via email that they are no longer supporting Kobo Arc tablets and will no longer be able to connect to the Kobo bookstore. This change will occur on May 25th, 2023. These tablets will not receive a mandatory firmware update, which upgrades their security, such as TLS and SSL. All of their s older ebook readers with E INK screens will be getting the update, but it looks like their tablets are down for the count.
The Kobo Arc tablets came out in 2012, and these were meant to compete against the Kindle Fire and Barnes and Noble Nook tablets. They were all discontinued a couple of years after the release. In an interview with the new CEO Michael Tamblyn, I asked about refreshing their tablets when he took the job. He said they are not interested in it since their Android app will work on virtually any tablet. Kobo is one of the few online bookstores on the Google Play Store that still sells audiobooks and ebooks.
The affected Arc models, which will lose access to the Kobo bookstore, are Arc 7, Arc 7 HD, Arc 10 HD, and the Kobo Mini. Your tablet will not exit the setup process if a factory reset is performed after May 25, 2023. So, I would ensure you never factory reset it again if you don’t want to lose all of the books you purchased from Kobo or apps you have installed. If you have no choice but to update firmware, it will turn into a brick.
Rest assured that no items in your Kobo library will be affected; you will always have access to eBooks or audiobooks you have purchased or downloaded by signing into the free Kobo Books App for iOS or Android, or any other Kobo eReader.
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.
