Walmart Login on Kobos Discontinued As of 31 Oct

[ChrisHistorian76]

Allegedly, Kobo users won't be able to use their Walmart account to login to their device as of 31 October 2024.

https://goodereader.com/blog/kobo-er...kobo-e-readers

[Renate]

I bought one of the Walmart Aura2. I never used a Walmart login. In fact, I never used it as a reader. It's quite a slim device when compared to B&N of the same generation.

I had bypassed the first setup page at one point in the past. Recently, it just did a hiccup and a "factory reset". I don't think that I've ever had it connected to the internet. I did put a UART connector in the back. You can run Linux executables on it. You can build them on the same system as Raspberry Pi.

[Cactus Chef]

My Clara HD was purchased through Walmart. I never used the Walmart sign-in option, but all of my Kobo emails still come from "Walmart ebooks," even the ones I buy directly through the Kobo app or website. I wonder if that will change after the partnership ends.

Also, I assume Walmart.com will stop selling the Walmart eBooks gift cards soon. That will be a bummer, since it was my preferred method of loading up my Kobo account balance for purchasing books overseas.

[ZodWallop]

It feels like a real missed opportunity. Walmart wanted to challenge Amazon in ebooks and a partnership with Kobo was a good idea. If it were successful, they could have eventually purchased Kobo outright.

But then Walmart just never did anything with it.

[Renate]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

But then Walmart just never did anything with it.

Yeah, they really killed it.
The whole book section was adjacent to clearance.
Many of the Walmart did not have the Kobo at all.
I believe that it was stocked externally by some company.
The regular Walmart employees knew nothing about it.
They had those SKU cards if you were interested but no demo models.
Moreover the Walmart employees didn't know anything about the SKU cards.

[cfrizz]

Hopefully, Kobo will offer their own gift cards or keep using Walmart to offer them for purchases.

Actually, there really isn't a reason for them to stop selling the cards since they sell everyone else's gift cards. Simply rebrand them as Kobo GC and they are good to go.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

It feels like a real missed opportunity. Walmart wanted to challenge Amazon in ebooks and a partnership with Kobo was a good idea. If it were successful, they could have eventually purchased Kobo outright.

But then Walmart just never did anything with it.

I agree. It was like, "this hasn't produced instant million$, let's drop it" — after about three months in. When they were setting up the Kobo displays I found a paper on the floor that said in the spring of the next year (March, I think) they were going to set up a whole Kobo section in the electronics department — instead of the half-hearted attempt they were setting up at the time. I guess they gave up before that happened. I thought they were going to use VuDu and Kobo as part of their Amazon competition, but Vudu went away also.

For a short while I had a Walmart (Kobo) account as a test, but I kept getting nagged to merge it with my regular Kobo account, so I ended up deleting it a few months in.

I did buy Aura 2s and some Kobo cases when they went on clearance at the Nampa store in Idaho. Later I also bought a Clara HD and had it shipped to the store. It was nice to be able to buy Kobos for quick shipment.

[ChrisHistorian76]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I agree. It was like, "this hasn't produced instant million$, let's drop it" — after about three months in. When they were setting up the Kobo displays I found a paper on the floor that said in the spring of the next year (March, I think) they were going to set up a whole Kobo section in the electronics department — instead of the half-hearted attempt they were setting up at the time. I guess they gave up before that happened. I thought they were going to use VuDu and Kobo as part of their Amazon competition, but Vudu went away also.

For a short while I had a Walmart (Kobo) account as a test, but I kept getting nagged to merge it with my regular Kobo account, so I ended up deleting it a few months in.

I did buy Aura 2s and some Kobo cases when they went on clearance at the Nampa store in Idaho. Later I also bought a Clara HD and had it shipped to the store. It was nice to be able to buy Kobos for quick shipment.

The Kobo/Walmart partnership at least (officially) lasted longer than Walmart's Vudu effort. Walmart sold Vudu to NBC subsidiary Fandango Media back in 2020. Fandango just kept the name around until they rebranded it in March 2024.

Why do you (and everybody else) think the Kobo/Walmart partnership ultimately failed? It seems to me like Walmart and Kobo might have helped each other not only by selling Kobos in Walmart stores, but by adding the Kobo Plus Read service into Walmart+.

[theducks]

I find it a bit odd that Walmart did not, at least, continue to offer Kobo, sinc IN STORE sales and support were almost non-existent (Minimal working displays, if any). Both of mine had to be ordered for pickup. So why not still offer Branded Kobo Books Gift cards and online book sales.

How much server space does the Catalog take? Any profit is still PROFIT (I studied my Ferengi rules of acquisition )

There is still the issue of convincing Readers, that an e-reader is just a convenient to use book. ( I offered one of my devices to my sister who had stacks of paper books, to try. Nope! She was not alone in this refusal. I never understood.)

[ChrisHistorian76]

Originally Posted by theducks

I find it a bit odd that Walmart did not, at least, continue to offer Kobo, sinc IN STORE sales and support were almost non-existent (Minimal working displays, if any). Both of mine had to be ordered for pickup. So why not still offer Branded Kobo Books Gift cards and online book sales.

How much server space does the Catalog take? Any profit is still PROFIT (I studied my Ferengi rules of acquisition )

There is still the issue of convincing Readers, that an e-reader is just a convenient to use book. ( I offered one of my devices to my sister who had stacks of paper books, to try. Nope! She was not alone in this refusal. I never understood.)

The Ferengi run Amazon, not Walmart. (I really miss DS9. Such a great show. Quark could probably run Amazon better than Jassy.)

IMO, the reason for the failure may be as simple as a change in upper management. If the empty suit at Walmart HQ who believed the partnership was a good deal got replaced by another empty suit who didn't, that person probably convinced the rest of upper management the deal wasn't something that would be "profitable enough" to justify the floor and warehouse space.

What doesn't make sense to me is that Walmart seemingly has decided to go "all in" on Walmart+. They weren't going to truly compete with Prime Video because they sold Vudu four years ago. The video part of the membership is Paramount+. I would have thought they'd want to partner with an ereader/ebook retailer to compete with Prime. Maybe that was the original intent of the deal and the two companies just couldn't get the $$ to work out.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by ChrisHistorian76

What doesn't make sense to me is that Walmart seemingly has decided to go "all in" on Walmart+. They weren't going to truly compete with Prime Video because they sold Vudu four years ago. The video part of the membership is Paramount+. I would have thought they'd want to partner with an ereader/ebook retailer to compete with Prime. Maybe that was the original intent of the deal and the two companies just couldn't get the $$ to work out.

As an outsider, Walmart partnering with Kobo seems like it would be a win/win. Kobo is responsible for R&D on new devices and managing the ebook store, Walmart gives Kobo physical locations in the US. And if it works well, Walmart is easily large enough to buy out Kobo.

[PeterT]

I believe one of the reasons behind the original partnership was for Walmart to leverage Rakuten in Japan.

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