Ann Arbor, Mich. – Borders today entered the e-book market with the rollout of the Kobo e-reader.
The company has begun taking pre-orders for the $149 Kobo at www.borders.com/koboreader, and it is expected to ship by June 17. The Kobo will come preloaded with 100 classic book titles. In addition, Borders will open its online e-book store next month with 1 million titles and apps designed for the Kobo.
The E Ink-based Kobo is 4.7 inches by 7.2 inches by 0.4 inches and weighs 8 ounces. It has 1GB of memory, capable of storing up to 1,000 titles. Borders said the Kobo will last two weeks on a single charge, enough power to read about 8,000 pages. It can connect to a PC via USB or Bluetooth and it supports EPUB, PDF and Adobe DRM.
Borders said it will sell additional e-readers in the future, and the titles available from the online store will support a wide variety of formats and can be downloaded onto portable devices like the iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry and Android-based phones.
The Kobo is manufactured by Kobo Inc., of which Borders is a majority shareholder.