Dear Kobo Customers;
What an amazing few months it has been in the world of eReading… I often tell people that we are on a rocket ship as this market, this global transformation, this company – is taking off!
In the beginning of May we launched the Kobo eReader an affordable, easy-to-use, and stylish eReader, in time for Mother’s Day in Canada. What a tremendous response we received. We have since expanded distribution adding Walmart in Canada, Whitcoull’s in New Zealand, Borders and A&R in Australia and last but not least, Borders in the US. Most initial shipments were sold out in 24 hours, and the response from customers has been very enthusiastic. More shipments are on the way to all of our retail partners, and some new ones to be announced soon.
In the meantime, we have been working very hard to grow our customer service by adding 24×7 phone support, in addition to 24×7 email support. We have certainly experienced some growing pains, but are doing everything possible to scale up fast to exceed our customer’s expectations. We are adding dozens of people by the week, and our goal is that no one waits more than a few minutes to get to one of our agents, and that we get to every email in 24 hours or less. We will continue to build our service team around the world, and all we ask is for some of your patience and understanding. We are getting better and better, every single day.
Through the last 30 days, we have also been working on our first software upgrade for the Kobo eReader, focusing on what customers have been telling us. Our software is complete, and we are just working on the final touches on the upgrade process. The upgrade will be available the week of June 28th and we will make sure you know the minute it is available. For those that want to upgrade sooner, we are offering our beta program to partake in the software trial sooner.
Here is a sampling of some of the improvements we are making:
1. ePub Font resizing. You will be able to load Adobe ePubs with fixed font sizes (set by the content publisher or originator) and still be able to resize the fonts with your Kobo eReader.
2. Hiding 100 Free eBooks. Some customers have told us that they actually don’t want the 100 Free eBooks in their way, so we have added the ability to hide the 100 Free eBooks we provide. We are working on a wide range of other organization features for a separate release of our desktop software coming in the future.
3. The “Off” Screen. The challenge with eInk screens, is that even when they are off, they look like they are on. We are working on making this a lot more clear to everyone, especially those who are not experts in eInk.
4. Sleep Mode. We are introducing a new “sleep” mode, if you have left your device inactive for more than 5 minutes, it will go to sleep. This is helpful in managing battery life, and it’s also a behavior that people have come to expect.
5. Low Battery. Some of you have found situations where your battery runs down faster than expected. We found the problem, and fixed it. We’ve also improved how we tell you that your battery is low, and you are running out of time to finish your chapter. Lastly, we have improved this shut down process so it is clear that you have run out of battery, and your Kobo eReader needs charging.
6. Installation. Some of you Windows XP users have had difficulty installing the Kobo Desktop. We did a poor job communicating what version you needed, so we’ve fixed that and for those customers that don’t have Windows XP, Service Pack 3 – we are bundling in everything you need.
More improvements are coming for our eReader and our desktop software and we will be making this a regular process for those customers who have bought a Kobo eReader and want to get the latest and greatest software experience. All new Kobo eReaders produced this week, and in stores by the end of June/early July will have the latest software.
Keep your feedback coming, it is fuel for us at Kobo. This is a new market, and a new product category and we are learning by the second, 86,400 seconds per day, 365 days per year. We are insanely focused on delivering the best experience to customers around world, and while we are a young, rapidly growing company, who will make some mistakes, who will experience some growing pains – you have my commitment that we get through them all, as fast as humanly possible.
Please enjoy reading your eBooks, enjoy your new Kobo eReaders, enjoy shopping at our newly launched partners in Australia and New Zealand, enjoy using our iPad app and it’s amazing selection of content internationally, enjoy our regular contests to win eReaders, iPads, Summer Getaways, and… enjoy the world of eReading with Kobo! Btw – new iPhone and iPad apps are coming this month! Plus, check out the newly launched Kobo eReading app for Android.
I look forward to bringing you new ways to enjoy Kobo and the world of eReading in the coming days, weeks and months. As always, please reach out to let us know how we can serve you better!
Mike Serbinis
CEO
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Any word on if an when you will implement reflow for acrobat files. Though I am very happy with the majority of these fixes.
You should open-source your software or create an SDK to make it easier for people like me to add missing functionality (games, Cyrillic font support, fb2 file format, etc..)
So how do we sign up for this beta process?
Mike; I am thrilled to see the manner you are staying in touch with customers! I was amzed to see your responses over on the Facebook page just now.
My wife and I are both eagerly awaiting the updates as, yes, the font sizing has been rather annoying (to put it mildly).
Has Kobo considered having a staff member also be a regular poster on the various forums out there discussing Kobos? In particular I was thinking of the highly active “a href=”http://www.mobileread.com” title=”Mobile Read”> that also happens to be home of Calbre.
Mike, just came back from my first business trip using kobo and loved it.
Thought that the iPad would replace my need for kobo but am convinced this purpose built beauty is the way to go.
I especially like that I can read for longer once my eyes start getting tired by increasing font size. Look forward to the update.
-dave
I don’t mind hiding SOME of the free eBooks, but I’m really enjoying working my way through the classics, the ones I haven’t read before at least.
I’m only two weeks into Kobo ownership, and I really like it, but I’m building up some feedback for you. Here’s one that I’m still formulating: I have some books from other sources, and actually some books from Kobobooks.com that were only available as a download, and I’d really like to be able to manage them in the desktop app, rather than drag’n'drop when the Kobo is plugged in.
Also, I can’t see all my books in the Kobo desktop app. The 100 free are nowhere to be seen, unless they’re on the I’m Reading list. which reminds me: When I first got the Kobo (and previously, when I was using the app on iPod touch) I did little test forays into a number of books, which put them on the “I’m reading” list. How do I take those off the I’m reading list?
“For those that want to upgrade sooner, we are offering our beta program to partake in the software trial sooner.”
And how does one sign up for this beta???
Hi I would like ro see nice black cover that you open like a book to use the Kobo ..like the one the have for the sony book ..
Thanks
Alison
This sounds great. I am abnormally excited about picking up one of the readers at my local Borders on July 2. I love how your product is about keeping it simple, without all the doodads. It’s like the Flip video camera, in that sense.
Anyway, do you have any idea when the Borders ebook store will be up on their site? Also, does the Kobo eReader have ability to read BarnesandNoble ebooks?
Hi. The beta site http://blog.kobobooks.com/beta/ is great, but only provides info on volunteering for the betas for iphone, blackberry, android, & pc/mac, but your post seemed to indicate it would be possible to sign up to help test the update for the Kobo ereader.
Do we do that somewhere else?
Thanks! Really liking the ereader so far, but there’s a book I’m looking forward to reading that’d be a lot easier in a slightly bigger font…
Hi there – thanks for the feedback. The Kobo eReader update has been added to the Beta program. For all of you looking for it please visit http://blog.kobobooks.com/beta/
Neil
I already signed up for the beta – so my email address has been used – which means I cannot join the Kobo eReader list.
I would like to join the Kobo eReader beta test! On my blog I cover Kobo stuff pretty closely so I would like to be able to test things out and give feedback.
Can you add me?
Thanks for the update Mike. As a tech worker, I know that bugs happen. Thanks for fixing the epub font issue, and for communicating with your customers. It is appreciated.
@Jonah
I used the approach of unsubscribing from the beta, and resubscribing to add in the Kobo eReader option. Check the original eMail you had from Kobo when you subscribed.
Please make it clearer which country your contests apply. I know we’re a small market here compared to North America, but it’s nice to know when a contest applies to you without having to check the rules and regulations. But then I guess I’ve gotten used to it and always check to be sure
I enjoy the Kobo for epubs, but it is unusable as a PDF reader without Reflow support. I cannot recommend the Kobo to anyone until this feature is added.
I signed up for the beta! Now what? Do I run an upgrade? Not even sure how to do that.
Thanks for the updates and the great focus on customer service. As another tech worker posted, “bugs happen”. People don’t always see what’s under the covers, and what can seem to be an obvious and easy fix isn’t always as obvious or easy to actually implement.
A quick question about the new Android reader. If I search for “kobo” on the apps market, I don’t get any results. Is it called something other than “kobo”? I have the Shortcovers app but would like to see the new one.
PDF text reflow or more zoom levels <—- most needed thing on this reader.
Any plans for that?
I was so looking forward to the Kobo reader in store shelves except… the beauty of capitalism at it’s finest came about today with B&N dropping the price of the nook /w wifi only to $150 (same as the kobo) and wifi+3g to $199. Amazon did the same thing with the kindle to $189 which is seriously tempting me atm… Both have wireless downloading so there’s an advantage that kobo doesn’t have. (Plus 16 grayscale e-ink display that’s alot better.)
Sounds fantastic, really looking forward to the future organize function.
All I want is for the Kobo to be back-lit!
Ok, so I’ve signed up for beta testing, and confirmed my email address. Now what?
I love my Kobo and realized at the start there might be some problems but haven’t had many and am really enjoying the unit. Keep up the good work and keeping in touch this way is great.
Hi! One feature that would be very useful is the ability to jump to a specified page number, IE: jump to page 55.
Thanks,
Mark
Hi there!
I bought one for my mom and she is requesting a dictionary feature on the Kobo…make it so number one!
Thanks,
Colleen
I agree, being able to move around your documents quicker would make the kobo more useful.
The Kindle 2 has dropped to $189 this week. Will Kobo be reducing its price too?
I’d be happier with better functioning software. I am frustrated with the font issues and how hard it is to navigate through books (outside from page-by-page). I do miss a search function, but I’m probably spoiled from reading books on my PDA with eReader.
Some built in support for cyrillic (and perhaps other language) fonts and also better PDF viewing (’reflowing’) would be my suggestions. I tried to read a PDF and it was impossible.
I’d love to see the Kobo iPad app support Adobe ADE like Txtr. This would be fantastic and would give you an advantage over Sony, Apple and Amazon.
I would like to see the battery status while im reading a book, maybe at the bottom of the screen. Currently my kobo will just die on whatever page i am reading and I will press the button to go to next page and nothing happens. The other very frustrating thing is that when the kobo dies, it NEVER remembers what page I am on. So I also agree with the other who have mentioned adding a way to navigate to a specific page rather than wasting time and battery flipping thru every page. Lastly, a better organization of the books would be nice. For example, I would like to have folders and I would like to be able to remove things from “Im reading” I have followed the directions and still can’t remove some stuff. Maybe a “delete now” function would be nice too. After finishing a book, Id like to just delete it and move on.
This kinda sounds like a rant, but I do like this reader. Its simple and somewhat easy to use…..Except for that awful desktop software. Which I hear you are fixing. Can’t wait for the firmware fixes!!
I love the Kobo… thou it could be a bit faster turning the pages and browsing the menus, a progression bar or ‘pages to go’ would be nice and it should be solar powered
Ohh, I just thought of another thing that would be nice. Being able to read while the kobo is charging. This would be such a great feature to have for when the reader is dead and you still want to read.
Hope the Bluetooth option has been updated to support other devices. I have an Android with Kobo installed, and it would be useful to be able to transfer books and documents to the eReader.
It will be great when the battery problem is sorted out. Its really frustrating. Another couple of things I find frustrating… when you sync the kobo all of the books that you have already read come up as unread and back in your “I’m reading list”, which leads on to my next problem… you have no control over your own kobo. Even simple commands like ‘move’ or ‘delete’ would be great.
I hope also that we get more titles available in NZ soon.. its very limited.
Love my new Kobo – first to pick mine up from our local Borders U.S. My first ereader, I waited for this one… It is a bit confusing trying to figure out the Kobo app compared to the Borders app that came preloaded. Not much info came with my Kobo and the Borders ebook site is not really up yet. I had already purchased ebooks from KoboBooks awaiting my Kobo and had trouble getting them loaded. Instructions are for Kobo but came with Borders app. Still love it and looking forward to the upgrades. It is hard to tell when the unit is on….
I just got a Kobo for my birthday last week. Love it, but how do I get books I accidentally opened or opened just to look at off the main page “currently reading”? I like to look at a few chapters to get a feel for a book, but my main page is getting real cluttered already!
Thanks
I like Kobo and am considering a large purchase to use them with 9 groups of students in the fall. However, I sent an email to the contact Kobo address at the bottom of the http://www.koboereader.com site and got no response. I need to know about your educational services, discounts, accounts, deals, support. Please tell me who to call or email to get some answers. This is a time sensitive request. I am shopping at Sony also.
We tried to get PDF Reflow in for this release, but ran out of time. It’s near the top of our list for our next release.
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