I love my Kobo eReader – Part 1

This year I have traveled more than usual.  Seems as if I have been in the air more than on the ground!  And all long flights too.  Traveled to Europe, Asia and South America.   One of the best things to do on long flights  is read – so this year I have read a lot!

I have been captivated by the concept of eReaders for some time now.  I have been following their development and continuing to weigh the idea of reading electronically rather than a physical book.  Now if you travel long distances, you know that carrying books to read for the whole trip can be quite heavy – so about two months ago I finally conceded and bought myself a Kobo eReader.  I chose the Kobo because it was low cost and simple.  And I find that Kobo has an excellent bookstore with a large selection of eBooks.  I have friends with the Kindle and they love it as well.  My issue with Amazon was more philosophical.  They arguably build the best device, offer the best service and prices – yet they still feel the need to use a unique file type to ensure that you buy all your books at Amazon.  Seems like unnecessary overkill so I chose the public “epub” format instead.  Kobo’s strategy of being device independent is a good one and I support it.

Since buying my Kobo, I have read more than when I was reading from paper.  I love the light weight of the device and the e-ink is easy on the eyes.  I bought a small reading light to use with it when necessary and I am convinced that this is better than a back lit screen.

So why am I writing about this now?  I want to provide feedback to Kobo on their device and their eBook service.  As can be seen from the title, I am writing this in two parts.  For this part, I want to focus my thoughts on the existing device and software accepting that there are limitations to this simple ereader.  For part 2, I want to provide Kobo with constructive feedback on how to make the service better for the future.

So to start, let me say that I LOVE MY KOBO!  I enjoy the reading experience and will likely never go back to paper books as my main form of reading.  (Note: I also like the aspect that buying eBooks is much kinder to the environment).  But there are issues and I see from the forums that some of these issues are systematic and not being adequately addressed.

First of all, the Kobo software is just plain simply inadequate.  Every time I sync my reader I lose some of my book marks.  Many times the syncing fails and when it is sorted out, all books look as though they are new.  The time to sync is ridiculously long as each book is updated every time you sync.  It takes a long time and I only have 14 books on it at the moment.  Can’t imagine what it must be like if I were to have say, 100 or more books.  It is also almost impossible to close a book after reading.  The only way to get a book off the “I’m reading” list is to finish it – meaning you have to go the last page and page forward.  The problem is that each time you sync, there is a better than average chance that the book will be re-opened to a previous spot or added as new.  This is very frustrating.  So I choose to not sync often – but when I buy a book, I have no choice and more often than not, there is a problem.

A simple solution would be to add a “Close Book” command in the menu.  Solved!   There is really no reason in this day and age for such substandard software.  I see a lot of frustration on the Kobo forum with many customers throwing their hands up in defeat.

When you go on line and buy a book, you press “buy book now”.  You then must complete a transaction for each and every book that you want.  There is no shopping cart so for example, last week I bought 3 books and had to make 3 transactions.  Again, it is easy to add shopping cart functionality.  Not sure why it is not there.

So in summary the Kobo is  a great device.  Light weight – good reading – poor software.  In Part 2, I would like to offer suggestions on how to improve the software in the future to make it more useful for the reader.  It is clear to me that eReading is still in its infancy and the capabilities will continue to dramatically improve.  I can imagine that eReading provides flexibility and options not imagined with a paper book.  For this, I would like your input.  So please add a comment to this blog with your ideas on what you would like to see in future software upgrades to the Kobo.

And finally a small poll.  Please let me know with a simple click if you are satisfied with your Kobo or if the current syncing issues are driving you to buy a different device.  Multiple answers are acceptable.  I hope this will help the good people at Kobo listen and continue to improve their products.

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