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While Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple battle it out for your e-book dollars, it's easy to forget that Kobo is out there on the front lines and in independent book stores with its tablet and line of e-readers. Ahead of Amazon's Sept. 6 press event, Kobo is pulling out all the stops.
The company announced three new products on Thursday: An update to the Kobo Vox, called the Kobo Arc Android tablet; the Kobo Glo, which is the company's answer to the Barnes & Noble Nook; and the Kobo Mini, a pocket-sized e-reader with a 5-inch screen.
The Kobo Arc 7-inch tablet will be available in 8GB and 16Gb configurations for $200 and $250, respectively. Instead of forking Android like the Amazon Kindle Fire, the Arc will have the default Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) install with Kobo's Tapestries widget installed to navigate the Kobo library of books. Kobo says it doesn't want to get in the way of updates for its Android device.
The tablet ships with a dual-core 1.5Ghz Texas Instruments processor, an IPS LCD 1280x800 screen and a front-facing 720p 1.3 megapixel camera.
For those that want to read in the dark but don't want the Android tablet experience, the Kobo Glo with the front-lit ComfortLight feature is the company's touchscreen e-reader. The adjustable light is part of the 6-inch e-ink XGA screen, with 16 levels of gray and a 1024x768 resolution. The Glo has 2GB of on-board memory that can be expanded via the micro SD slot. It will cost $130, or $10 less than the Nook with GlowLight. According to Kobo, the Glo's battery will last a month on one charge, provided Wi-Fi and the ComfortLight are turned off. It'll last 55 hours with the light turned on.
Finally, Kobo is trying to get into your pocket with the Kobo Mini. The tiny e-reader will sell for $80 and, like the Glo, will ship with 2GB of internal memory, though it will not have a micro-SD card slot. The battery life also takes a hit because of the smaller footprint. According to Kobo, the Mini will last two weeks with Wi-Fi turned off.
All three devices have access to Kobo's three million titles and are available in white or black, but Kobo will sell backs in various colors for users who wish to customize their devices. The Kobo tablet and e-readers will be available on Kobo's site and in independent book stores. The Kobo Mini and Glo e-readers will be available in October, and the Kobo Arc will follow in November.
