Kobo has ended their partnership with Walmart

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by ChrisHistorian76

IMO it's rather "nteresting" that only Good e-Reader has claimed the Rakuten partnership with Walmatrt has ended. Their post claims that they've contacted Rakuten Kobo for comment and would update the post. Nine days later, they haven't done so.

https://goodereader.com/blog/electro...tnership-ended

It's funny there's no news. But I can't find Walmart's eReader site anymore, nor do I have to avoid logging into Walmart eBooks (may not be the exact name) when I log into Kobo now. It used to be the primary to login and I would have to go down to Rakuten Kobo.

Walmart is still there if you go to "More Sign In Options" and, if I put in an email address, it does allow me to enter a password. It says create an account and link to Kobo, but I don't know what happen if I did that. ... Okay, made a sample account via Walmart sign in. There's no Walmart branding any more, I just go directly to Kobo. I wonder if any of the other logins (like Bol) are doing the same thing? Doubt it, but who knows.

[John F]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Point is, it's an area where a soccer mom wouldn't mind plunking down $150 on a device she has never heard of and knows nothing about. Seems like it would be a good place to introduce Kobos.

I got your point (originally) and agree.

Just having a little fun at your expense. Sorry about that. My apologies.

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Apple?
They bring out products when others have proved there is a market.
MP3 player
Phone
Tablet
Watch

A funny thing about this list is it misses a lot of things Apple tried when there wasn't a market: Newton, the iPod Phone (first device integrating music player with mobile phone, predating the iPhone), the G4 Cube (first modern fanless desktop computer), Vision Pro, etc.

But then, another funny thing about this list, everything here was a niche market when Apple got into it. There was a market for portable MP3 players (witness Creative Nomad and Microsoft Zune), but it was a niche market until Apple released a hard-drive based unit that was 1/4 the size of the Nomad Jukebox, with 3-4 times the storage capacity, Firewire instead of USB 2.0, and a superior user interface.

(Yes, I had a Nomad Jukebox, modified to replace the 6GB hard drive with a 20GB drive. And a 20GB iPod. The iPod was the better product in every way.)

Plus the iTunes Music Store made buying music easy. No ripping CDs and transcoding and copying files around using cumbersome applications. Click, click, boom, there's your music.

iPhone was a flop, a complete failure, until Apple convinced the mobile carriers to let them apply the iTunes Music Store model to native apps. That's what sold iPhone, not the device itself. iPad would have been a similar flop if it didn't have an established app store, but it helps that iPads have generally been superior products to the Android-based competition.

I'm not sure where Apple Watch and smart watches in general are going. They're still niche and I think will remain that way until someone stumbles across the "universal" killer app for these things.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Apple?
They bring out products when others have proved there is a market.
MP3 player
Phone
Tablet
Watch

That's true. But they do also stand by a product and continue to update and improve on it (Apple Maps as a for instance). I'm not an Apple fan and am not interested in a detailed discussion of things they dropped.

I just wish companies like Google and Walmart would stick by something they introduce instead of quickly dropping it. That's what happens when companies go from their visionary founder to a CEO.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by ChrisHistorian76

IMO it's rather "nteresting" that only Good e-Reader has claimed the Rakuten partnership with Walmatrt has ended. Their post claims that they've contacted Rakuten Kobo for comment and would update the post. Nine days later, they haven't done so.

https://goodereader.com/blog/electro...tnership-ended

GoodeReader mysteriously heard the news the day after I started this thread

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by rcentros

It's funny there's no news. But I can't find Walmart's eReader site anymore, nor do I have to avoid logging into Walmart eBooks (may not be the exact name) when I log into Kobo now. It used to be the primary to login and I would have to go down to Rakuten Kobo.

When you logged in you didn't get a pop-up message on the Kobo website? That is how I found out.

Have you purchased a Kobo from Walmart? I did. Maybe that is why I got the pop-up?

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by John F

I got your point (originally) and agree.

Just having a little fun at your expense. Sorry about that. My apologies.

No problem. I got it after the help explained it to me

[Cactus Chef]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

When you logged in you didn't get a pop-up message on the Kobo website? That is how I found out.

Have you purchased a Kobo from Walmart? I did. Maybe that is why I got the pop-up?

I haven't received the pop-up. But then, I was very careful when I originally purchased my Clara HD through Walmart to setup a standalone Kobo account for sign-in and not use my Walmart account. So maybe that's the distinction?

Employment in the IT industry has taught me to be weary of SSO logins. I get the problem they were trying to solve, but in the age of password managers, I prefer to keep everything isolated.

[DNSB]

@ChrisHistorian76: Did you miss the first message in this thread?

[RWTS]

Two Walmarts near me used to stock Kobo eReaders. Both stores had a nice display in the book aisle, with two models tethered to the counter. I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the Kobo lineup, but there were definitely two models (different screen sizes). Unfortunately, they were both stuck on the sign on screens, so I was never able to play with them to check out navigation, fonts, lighting, etc. A shame because I'd like to have given them a test drive since Kobos are highly regarded on this site.

The displays disappeared some months back.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

GoodeReader mysteriously heard the news the day after I started this thread

Bad-eReader specializes in "innovative imitation."

(Not really that "innovative.")

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

When you logged in you didn't get a pop-up message on the Kobo website? That is how I found out.

Have you purchased a Kobo from Walmart? I did. Maybe that is why I got the pop-up?

I didn't get the pop-up.

I've purchased a couple eReaders from Walmart (a Clara HD and an Aura Edition 2). But what might be different is that I never combined my Walmart account with my Kobo account. I just closed out the Walmart account to get rid of it.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

I haven't received the pop-up. But then, I was very careful when I originally purchased my Clara HD through Walmart to setup a standalone Kobo account for sign-in and not use my Walmart account. So maybe that's the distinction?

Same here. And it used to be you had to avoid signing in with Walmart as it was your default choice. That's no longer the case.

[ChrisHistorian76]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

GoodeReader mysteriously heard the news the day after I started this thread

That doesn't surprise me in the least lol. Sorry they didn't credit you.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

GoodeReader mysteriously heard the news the day after I started this thread

Thieving is their game.