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Samsung to Cut Ties with Kobo?

Changes are in the wind for the European ebook market. One Italian tech blog is reporting that Samsung’s own reading app, which currently is tied to the Kobo ebookstore, could be breaking ties in the near future.

HDBlog got a warning pop up message the last time they tried to read an ebook on their Samsung  smartphone. It seems that Samsung wanted to tell them if they want to continue reading the ebooks they’d bought in the app, they were going to need to get Kobo’s app from Google Play. Samsung didn’t get into specific details, but clearly a change is coming:

A new and improved e-Book service from Samsung is under preparation and will be available soon.

There’s not much to go on here, but it looks like Samsung has noticed the revenue slipping through their fingers and decided to do something about it. They’re going to be getting their ebooks from elsewhere, and they might even be going for a richer format like Blio. But we’ll have to wait and see about that.

I wasn’t aware that Samsung had an Android app tied to the Kobo ebookstore, but I did know that early last year Samsung launched their own reading app on their WP7 smartphones.  That app was also tied to the Kobo ebookstore.  IMO the WP7 is the much more interesting story today. You see, there’s no Kobo app for WP7, so if Samsung drops that ebookstore then all the users of the WP7 app are going to be in a world of hurt.

The last I heard was that Kobo didn’t plan to develop a WP7 app, but that info is old. Now that Kobo belongs to Rakuten they can probably afford to expand their development efforts.

via

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Comments


Mike Cane June 20, 2012 um 10:54 am

>>>The last I heard was that Kobo didn’t plan to develop a WP7 app

Because MS abstracted developing for 7. You had to use crap like Silverlight to dev for it. Today Windows Phone 8 is announced and that should permit native code development.

Nate Hoffelder June 20, 2012 um 12:37 pm

That’s going to suck for anyone currently using the app.


Samir Shah June 21, 2012 um 6:28 am

Time is ripe for Samsung to bring a new ChatON 'like' eReader application and continually upgrade it. I in India would be quite happy if Samsung took the pains to offer the EPUB format in Hindi and other Indian languages and some sample eBooks in Hindi and Indian languages to go with their smartphones and tablets.


Samsung May Discontinue Kobo E-books | TheTechJournal June 21, 2012 um 11:22 am

[…] Smith Under: Tablet On June 21, 2012 Comment Add to Bookmark Add to Readlist The Digital Reader has reported that some users of Samsung Android devices in Europe are getting a warning message […]


Samsung Gives up on eBooks – The Digital Reader May 19, 2014 um 4:53 pm

[…] After those devices failed, Samsung turned their focus towards selling ebooks on tablets and smartphones. Samsung first partnered with Kobo in early 2011 and released their own branded reading apps for Windows Phone and Android, but later broke ties with Kobo in June 2012. […]


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