Kobo's Misleading Advertising - Comics vs eBooks - Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums

BGY11 · 2012-03-05, 03:00 PM

If I'm reading things correctly, it appears Kobo is now using false-advertising with regards to their "Read Freely" slogan. From their Read Freely page:

Quote:

Kobo: An Open Platform

The eBooks you buy with Kobo are yours. You're free to read them on the most popular open devices. Or, you can buy books from other eBook retailers and read them with Kobo. The choice is yours.

On the main Kobo page, one of the banners states "Not being able to read your eBooks on other eReaders should be a crime. eBooks you buy with Kobo are truly yours. You are free to read your books on any open device - regardless of brand."

So, how do they justify having things like comics (which are still eBooks in my opinion) being exclusive to the Kobo Vox? For example, Hellboy Comic

You are unable to get a preview or view this book if you don't have a Vox. Even if you have another device with a color display (such as an Android tablet) this title won't appear in your library. Out of curiosity, is there a special comics app on the vox that would justify why these are different than regular eBooks?

jvincent · 2012-03-05, 03:08 PM

My guess would be that the graphic novels (have to use the right term these days) generally don't display well on the Kobo (or other e-ink) readers so they have them disabled to avoid a slew of complaints.

Of course that doesn't explain the Android tablet problem.

NeilN · 2012-03-05, 03:38 PM

At first, I got excited but then I looked further and it seems it's the same line Amazon is peddling. They describe their "open" platform thusly: "You're free to read them on the most popular open devices." However their books are encumbered by Adobe DRM. That's not open. Open and "reading freely" means I can take what I bought and convert it so I can read the contents on any device using any software I choose.

BGY11 · 2012-03-05, 04:04 PM

You can't even read the graphic novels on a desktop PC with their app! That to me seems like the vox isn't doing as well as they had hoped, and are trying to drum up sales by making certain things exclusive to it.

2012-03-05, 03:08 PM	#2
jvincent Moderator Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Ottawa Posts: 5,369	My guess would be that the graphic novels (have to use the right term these days) generally don't display well on the Kobo (or other e-ink) readers so they have them disabled to avoid a slew of complaints. Of course that doesn't explain the Android tablet problem. __________________ Android rocks!

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2012-03-05, 03:38 PM	#3
NeilN Veteran Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: North York Posts: 1,614	At first, I got excited but then I looked further and it seems it's the same line Amazon is peddling. They describe their "open" platform thusly: "You're free to read them on the most popular open devices." However their books are encumbered by Adobe DRM. That's not open. Open and "reading freely" means I can take what I bought and convert it so I can read the contents on any device using any software I choose.

2012-03-05, 04:04 PM	#4
BGY11 Veteran Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Calgary AB Posts: 3,167	You can't even read the graphic novels on a desktop PC with their app! That to me seems like the vox isn't doing as well as they had hoped, and are trying to drum up sales by making certain things exclusive to it.