Borders bundles $20 gift card with Kobo, intros Apple app
updated 01:45 pm EDT, Tue June 22, 2010
Borders launches Apple app, adds $20 GC to Kobo
Borders on Tuesday said it would bundle its Kobo eReader with a $20 gift card and double Borders Bucks. At the same time, the company has released a free app for both the Apple iPhone and iPad that will let users browse, search, buy and read its e-books. The Apple app is Kobo's second for mobile devices, with an Android app unveiled on Friday and a BlackBerry app promised to arrive soon as well.
The new bundle was likely spurred by the recently announced price drop of both the Barnes & Noble Nook and Amazon Kindle price drops. The Kobo eReader costs $149 and includes 100 free e-books, while the Nook Wi-Fi costs the same and trades the public domain books for Internet access.
Via Facebook
Joined: Jun 2010
is that enough to make Kobo stand out?
More interesting news. This has been an exciting few hours for eReaders I must say.
As much as I think the Kobo is a pretty decent eReader, I don’t think think the $20 is really going to put it over the top either. Kobo doesn’t have half the name recognition of either Amazon or Barnes and Noble. People basically associate the words Amazon and Barnes and Noble with the word book. That aside, I also think the Kindle and Nook are offering very solid packages themselves and I would probably go with the Nook for a low end offering, even given the $20 gift card. But at the current prices, any true reader will find it hard to feel TOO bad about any one device. All three are strong choices to begin with and now they’ve made the decision dead simple. I put a longer discussion on what I think the future looks like on my blog. Check it out there: http://ebookreader-ben.com/borders-enters-ereader-wars-with-20-gift-card/