Nia seems pretty much official now

[Mercador]

Originally Posted by haydnfan

Yes the Clara and Forma released in the same year. Also the Aura 2 and the Aura One. The Aura and the Aura HD. And finally the Mini and the Glo. It happens about as frequently as isolated releases. And all of those releases were within several months of each other if I recall.

I would say based on history a successor to the Forma might be in the works. But then again I would think that Amazon would be looking to release the Paperwhite 5 this fall (they tend to have one per year and the PW4 is now the oldest model), so maybe the Clara will need to be refreshed to be competitive.

I think I'll wait. I went to Best Buy today, there was the Clara, Forma and Libra. The Forma size is quite nice but the lightning is uneven, the Libra seems better on that side. I'm not in a rush, I'll wait for September to see if there's something new around the corner. With the pandemic, I wonder if they simply push back the Forma refresh (it's been 2 years now?).

[RobertJSawyer]

My guess is that the Nia is NOT principally intended for the consumer market, but rather was developed as a low-cost item to meet a bidding requirement for a big educational-sector contract -- perhaps in Canada, perhaps in Japan, perhaps in the US, perhaps in the EU. Whatever retail-channel sales there will be I'd guess are incidental.

(My theory of life is simple: don't assume the guy who has left you scratching your head is stupid or making a mistake. Instead, ask yourself what they were thinking, and try to suss out why it made sense to them. )

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by RobertJSawyer

My guess is that the Nia is NOT principally intended for the consumer market, but rather was developed as a low-cost item to meet a bidding requirement for a big educational-sector contract -- perhaps in Canada, perhaps in Japan, perhaps in the US, perhaps int he EU. Whatever retail-channel sales there will be I'd guess are incidental.

(My theory of life is simple: don't assume the guy who has left you scratching your head is stupid or making a mistake. Instead, ask yourself what they were thinking, and try to suss out why it made sense to them. )

They already have this in the Aura 2. Why pay to go through FCC filings with a new device if your target is principally a school system. They’re not making a lot per device sold as it is, and any large entity buying in bulk from them would likely demand a discount further reducing the profit margin.

I know BN tried pushing into schools with various Nook models over the years. Stores had specific staff to handle this if they sold enough (not just Nooks of course). In the end I believe it was more costly for BN to maintain the support for these kinds of buyers. As mentioned they got discounted devices, and I believe discounts on bulk ebook purchases (these would have been handled differently than the consumer level purchase). Not to mention all the customer support time spent helping people who had no interest in the devices but were forced into using them.

You might be on to something if the target were hotels, which I think Kobo already has some deals in place. Or at least they did awhile back.

[RobertJSawyer]

MGlitch: You don't know what the RFP demanded. For instance, it might have required more than 4GB of storage, which is all the Aura 2 has; the Nia has more. You also don't win many technology tenders by coming to the table with a device that's been on the market for four years.

(And given that B&N botched just about EVERYTHING in relation to nook, losing over a billion dollars on that product line, it's hardly significant to say they screwed up in the education market, too; they couldn't make ANY market work profitably for their product. )

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by RobertJSawyer

MGlitch: You don't know what the RFP demanded. For instance, it might have required more than 4GB of storage, which is all the Aura 2 has; the Nia has more. You also don't win many technology tenders by coming to the table with a device that's been on the market for four years.

(And given that B&N botched just about EVERYTHING in relation to nook, losing over a billion dollars on that product line, it's hardly significant to say they screwed up in the education market, too; they couldn't make ANY market work profitably for their product. )

Then replace the Aura 2 with the Clara which has a near meaningless price difference for obvious feature upgrades.

There's still no profit in selling in bulk to school systems. It's a PR move, which is why Apple and Microsoft donate to schools. Both companies with rather a lot more money to spend than Rakuten Kobo does.

Even Amazon isn't pushing hard into the school market at this point.

It's just not a profit rich market, because all these companies are selling their basic ereaders at a near loss as it is, and without a known conversion rate of the students the companies can't be sure of turning a profit on the work done.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by RobertJSawyer

My guess is that the Nia is NOT principally intended for the consumer market, but rather was developed as a low-cost item to meet a bidding requirement for a big educational-sector contract -- perhaps in Canada, perhaps in Japan, perhaps in the US, perhaps in the EU. Whatever retail-channel sales there will be I'd guess are incidental.

I think it's so there's a low-end Kobo that can sell for $60 or $70 (when on sale) that can compete with the Kindle Basic in price. Its close sibling, the Tolino Page 2, often sells very cheaply in Europe. "Developing" the Kobo Nia was basically rebranding the Page 2 hardware and loading Kobo firmware on it instead of Tolino firmware.

Is there really an educational market for e-Readers now? I thought that probably went away a few years ago when tablets got cheap.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I think it's so there's a low-end Kobo that can sell for $60 or $70 (when on sale) that can compete with the Kindle Basic in price. Its close sibling, the Tolino Page 2, often sells very cheaply in Europe. "Developing" the Kobo Nia was basically rebranding the Page 2 hardware and loading Kobo firmware on it instead of Tolino firmware.

Is there really an educational market for e-Readers now? I thought that probably went away a few years ago when tablets got cheap.

A Reader has no educational market. That's gone to tablets and laptops.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

A Reader has no educational market. That's gone to tablets and laptops.

That's my take also.