Rakuten Kobo has always focused on consumer e-book readers. It entered the industry in 2010, just a few years after Amazon released the Kindle. Rakuten Kobo releases a few new products yearly to keep things fresh and refine existing devices. In 2021, they released the Elipsa, their answer to the Remarkable and many other e-notes from Onyx Boox to Supernote. Unlike their e-book readers, the Elipsa was very expensive, costing double or triple the cost of their entry-level e-readers. Many bookstores and big box retailers refuse to sell the Elipsa in their stores, since nobody is buying it. Should Kobo just kill off the Elipsa experiment and forget about e-notebooks altogether?
What is the Kobo Elipsa?
The main selling point of the Kobo Elipsa is its ability to function as both an e-reader and a digital notebook. This allows users to read, write, sketch, and annotate directly on the device, making it ideal for students, professionals, and anyone who enjoys taking notes or annotating documents while reading. The Elipsa also features a large, glare-free screen, a pen that glides smoothly on a matte, paper-like surface, and a comfortable reading experience with adjustable ComfortLight PRO. Users can write directly on e-books and PDFs, create and organize notebooks, and export their notes via cloud services. The device is compatible with services like Dropbox and Google Drive for easy importing and exporting of documents. Users can also borrow e-books from the public library via Overdrive.
The Elipsa does not have a world-class freehand drawing system or advanced features that would encourage users to buy it over the Remarkable. The unique thing it can do is solve complex math equations, and it can purchase and read e-books on a large 10-inch display. Whereas the Remarkable has the best drawing experience in the e-notebook business, and its latest model has a full-colour Gallery 3 e-paper display, the Elipsa only has a lower resolution black and white display.
Should Kobo discontinue the Elipsa
Kobo is the number two global player in e-book reading and e-book retailing. Their customers can spend under $100 for an entry-level reader to a couple of hundred for one with a color screen and physical page-turn buttons. The people who buy Kobo devices like to read or listen to audiobooks. The average customer would see a Kobo e-reader at their local bookstore or big-box retailer and maybe buy one. They could return to the store for assistance if they had buyer’s remorse or a tech issue. The average Kobo customer would not spend $400 to $500 on a digital notebook.
Kobo seems to be forgetting who its customers are in its bid to combat the Kindle Scribe, Remarkable, Supernote, and Onyx Boox. The average Kobo user would not spend $400 to $500 on a digital notebook, no matter how great. One of the downsides of going with a Kobo notebook is the lack of new features via firmware updates. Going back a year and looking at the Kobo patch notes, I see no meaningful Elipsa features were introduced. However, the Kindle Scribe gets new stuff every few months, including massive AI stuff that enhances workflow.. Remarkable constantly refines the drawing experience and releases dedicated updates every three or four months. Onyx Boox and Supernote also release dedicated updates regularly.
I never see advertisements on social media about the Elipsa. They advertise their Clara BW, Clara Color, and Libra Colour, but never mention the Elipsa. It might as well not even exist,
I recommend that Kobo get out of the e-notebook game. They are not taking it seriously, are not devoting any meaningful engineering power to it, and would be better served focusing on e-book readers. The Elipsa is a black sheep in the Kobo portfolio and should be put out to pasture permanently.
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.