The Kobo Vox eReader. It’s a virtual unknown to US shoppers. But not for much longer.
Kobo, whose company’s headquarters are in Toronto, Canada, will soon have their Kobo Vox eReader sitting on shelves at Best Buy, next to Kindle e-Readers and Barnes & Noble’s Nooks.
The Vox eReader is actually quite popular outside of the US. The company claims it has more than 7 million users, mostly in Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, and New Zealand. Kobo has 2.5 million eBooks, magazines and newspapers available, giving it one of the largest eReading catalogues in the world. Over 1 million of the ebooks in their catalog can be downloaded for free
The Kobo Vox has been available to US shoppers through the company’s website, at Best Buy.com, and through other sites. But it’s expected that interest and sales of the e-reader will pick up once US shoppers can get it in their hands and try it out.
Todd Humphrey, EVP Business Development at Kobo, said:
“We’re excited to offer the Kobo Vox eReader in U.S. Best Buy locations where consumers can try our innovative social experience and see the difference that Kobo brings to eReading. We’re focused on delivering an innovative and easy eReading experience and our expanded footprint throughout the U.S. will allow consumers to experience Kobo first hand and find out why it is the favored choice of millions of readers around the world.”
The Kobo Vox eReader has a 7 inch screen with 1024 x 600 resolution display, It’s powered by an 800MHz processor, 512MB of RAM, and has 8GB of storage. Kobo says the device can store up to 8000 e-books, and there’s an SD slot for additional storage.
It will be priced in Best Buy stores at $199.