Southwest to Offer Kobo E-books Inflight

[AnemicOak]

Southwest to Offer Kobo E-books Inflight

E-book retailer Kobo is teaming with Global Eagle Entertainment and Bauer Communications to provide Southwest Airlines passengers complimentary in-flight access to e-books. The new inflight e-book platform launched on May 6 and provides access to full books, as well as excerpts, from hundreds of titles published by the major houses.

The new e-book service will include frontlist titles from Penguin Random House, Hachette, Macmillan, Kensington, S&S, HarperCollins, Open Road Media, Bauer Communications, and others. Southwest passengers can use the wi-fi on their mobile devices to connect with an entertainment portal to download the titles. If travelers don’t finish the e-book before they land, the Kobo service will deliver an email to them explaining how they can purchase the title.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...-inflight.html

[eschwartz]

...

WOW! How about that.

I've always been rather a fan of Southwest. This is an interesting bonus...
Enough of these recent surprises and I might decide I want a Kobo.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Enough of these recent surprises and I might decide I want a Kobo.

Is that a sign of the apocalypse?

[tubemonkey]

It sounds better than it actually is, because you have to read the entire book during the flight. Once the flight is over, you lose free access to that book and have to buy it if you want to finish reading it.

[murg]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

It sounds better than it actually is, because you have to read the entire book during the flight. Once the flight is over, you lose free access to that book and have to buy it if you want to finish reading it.

And, of course, you'll be pulling into the gate with a chapter or two left from a trans-coastal flight.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Is that a sign of the apocalypse?

Very possibly.

I haven't been positive what my next device might be, ever since the unjailbreakable Kindle firmware came out. Meanwhile Kobo has fixed a few grievous problems and indicated a few changes that make it look more appealing. Like direct OverDrive access, which alone is a dealbreaker.

I'm hoping someone will successfully do a closed-Kindle jailbreak on the new firmware before I have to make up my mind.

[ottdmk]

Interesting marketing move by Kobo. Thing is, it looks to me like the service won't actually support Kobo e-ink e-readers. The press release talks about passengers' "mobile devices" which to me sounds like an app on a smartphone/tablet.

[Apache]

This would never interest me. Most of my readings are not mainstream nor NYT Bestsellers and I would be afraid they would not have anything that interested me. I prefer to continue to bring my own reading material.
But, this may get occasional readers to buy their books.
Apache

[disconnected]

I wonder how this will work out in practice. People already reading ebooks probably load up their ereaders/tablets/phones with plenty of books before a trip.

I can see it appealing to people who haven't tried ereading yet but I wonder how many of them would be so instantly hooked that they'll go further with it after landing.

If they do want to take it further they'll probably do a little research and go with Amazon's ecosystem. It isn't like Kobo does anything in the US to reinforce what's happening on the plane; you can't even buy an actual Kobo ereader in the US.

It seems like a no-name fast food place advertising on a highway billboard, only to have people get off and then say "oh, look, there's a McDonald's here too; we'll go there because it's more familiar".

[Shades]

Originally Posted by disconnected

It isn't like Kobo does anything in the US to reinforce what's happening on the plane; you can't even buy an actual Kobo ereader in the US.

Yes, yes you can, or is the Kobo website lying customers? I think they might even be in some retailers like Walmart.

Not quite popular, except for Canada, but this is also a good form of advertising.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Shades

Yes, yes you can, or is the Kobo website lying customers? I think they might even be in some retailers like Walmart.

The only brick and mortar stores in the US selling Kobo devices are Family Christian (who I believe is in bankruptcy) and independent book stores. AFAIK none of them carry the newest models and many have dropped them altogether. Best Buy used to carry them but stopped quite a while ago. The easiest way to get a Kobo in the US is to order direct from Kobo in Canada or from a Canadian retailer like Chapters.

[Tarana]

It sounds better than it actually is, because you have to read the entire book during the flight. Once the flight is over, you lose free access to that book and have to buy it if you want to finish reading it.

You make this sound like its a bad thing. I think this is great. Rather like Barnes and Noble's option to let you read a book while you are there drinking coffee. I know I've bought more than one book while doing so. Most people on the flight have smart phones and I have always thought the Kobo app to be quite excellent. I can still read books on it (for a short while anyway) despite my vision damage. The new Iphones also have bigger screens. Its a win win.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Tarana

You make this sound like its a bad thing. I think this is great. Rather like Barnes and Noble's option to let you read a book while you are there drinking coffee. I know I've bought more than one book while doing so. Most people on the flight have smart phones and I have always thought the Kobo app to be quite excellent. I can still read books on it (for a short while anyway) despite my vision damage. The new Iphones also have bigger screens. Its a win win.

Just pointing out that it's not as "free" as it sounds.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

The only brick and mortar stores in the US selling Kobo devices are Family Christian (who I believe is in bankruptcy) and independent book stores. AFAIK none of them carry the newest models and many have dropped them altogether. Best Buy used to carry them but stopped quite a while ago. The easiest way to get a Kobo in the US is to order direct from Kobo in Canada or from a Canadian retailer like Chapters.

I think the Kobo site has a page listing bookstores that carry Kobo readers. Last fall, I called every store on the list within 50 miles. Most had never heard of ereaders or did not have any in stock.

Someone on Mobileread mentioned getting an Aura HD or Aura H2O at Politics & Prose in Washington, DC. Their website said that the H2O was expected to be in stock by some date which came and went with no update to the page. I called them anyway and someone very knowledgable and helpful answered. I was very quickly told the H2O was in stock. I ordered one and got it a few days later. So, unless they've dropped out, there is still at least one store with the latest Kobos.

Kobo really should update their page though. It was worse than useless for me.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

The easiest way to get a Kobo in the US is to order direct from Kobo in Canada or from a Canadian retailer like Chapters.

Forgot to mention:

Late last year there were postings on Mobileread about potential and actual problems knowing when the package would be shipped and when it would show up and troubles returning defective readers bought from Chapters or direct from Kobo.

For me, I think it was much easier to buy from Politics & Prose.