Will Kobo coop the lead?

Now comes the real battle. Who really builds the best ereader over the long haul? Not who has the best marketing, or who leverages best that first-to-market advantage. Wired weighs in with its choice: Kobo. Now that is surprising. How many of us have even considered buying a Kobo? Think back to cars. Was Ford an early apostle? Who had a Ford in the 1880's when the first cars were built by Benz and Daimler and Maybach. Absolutely noone. The first truly successful, longlasting automotive device (that was to force the replacement of horses and carriages) was Ford's Model T nearly 30 years later. So how does the venerable Wired.com come to its quick conclusion:"the (Kobo) Aura HD has the best screen on the e-reader market today. The display — a 6.8-inch, 1440 x 1080 screen with a density of 265 ppi — knocks the Kindle Paperwhite off its throne as e-ink emperor. Text appears crisper on the Aura’s display than on any of the other e-readers I’ve tested, not just the Paperwhite." And that's just for starters. Read all about the Kobo Aura HD.

Brazil's surprise

In Brazil, you'll need a dance card to keep track of the contestants. In the ebook world, Kobo, Google and Amazon opened their virtual doors in December 2012. The opposition, one would think, would be Saraiva, and digital distributor Xeriph. But seven of the largest publishers had banded together in April 2012 -- in anticipation of Amazon's arrival -- to create Distribuidora de Livros Digitais (DLD). According to Publishing Perspectives: "It looks like the DLD gamble has paid off. According to research by PublishNews Brazil’s Carlo Carrenho presented last week at the Digital Minds Conference during the London Book Fair, sales through DLD — which is believed to account for about 30% of ebook market in Brazil — more than doubled, reaching 39,210 ebooks in December."

Let's be indie

Although there were over 7,000 independent bookstores in the mid 1990s, there are now about only 2,000 bricks-and-mortar independent bookstores in the U.S., but that’s up from about 1,500 a few years ago, according to Digital Book World. Will they partake of the ebook psunami? At first they partnered with Google books to little avail, and then starting last October they switched to Kobo, and have been a little more successful. But the margins on selling either the Kobo ereaders or ebooks for the Kobo devices generate minuscule dollars. But imagine if when you bought the ebook, you also bought the printed book -- the rights and the price were blended. Then the indie booksellers could make more profit and, possibly, survive. Let's be indie in our ideas, too.

Go, Kobo

Kobo's strategy is making waves: Join with the indie bookstores, who should be very happy. Until now Mom and Pop bookstores -- some of them not so small -- have been left out of the device game, and, inherently, given the cold shoulder by the ebook onslaught. Now they are joining in, partnering with Kobo. (In the past their only option was to sell Google books, without a device on hand.) The Kobo devices will be sold at indie bookstores, after a deal helped by the American Booksellers Association. Barnes & Noble is no longer the primary source of print books and ebook devices at one venue. Digital Book Review today notes this, however: While Kobo ebook (sic) way outsold Google ebooks, the overall numbers aren't inspiring. The most successful bookstores have sold a few hundred devices and a few hundred ebooks. At the profit margins Kobo is offering bookstores, that doesn't add up to enough profit to pay bills or salaries.