Unlike Amazon, Kobo has partnered with other companies to feed contents except ebooks for Vox. The company has partnered with Zinio for magazines, PressDirect for newspaper, RDIO for music, and GetJar for apps. In a recent post we elaborate what apps come in-built with Vox.Kobo Vox doesn’t allow access to Google Android Market for apps. You rather have to get apps from GetJar.
What surprises me is that GetJar app market have Amazon’s apps for Kindle which is the competitor of Kobo in the ebook market. In other words, you can buy ebooks from Amazon and read them on Kobo Vox. Definitely, Amazon keep control of contents on Kindle Fire, and that’s why the company developed more closed eco-system of Kire by modifying the original Android software. Kobo took opposite position. It’s less closed, and the modofication of the system software not that severe to accommodate third-party apps. It seems if you buy Kindle Fire, you have to rely on Amazon for all contents. Amazon has spent a lot of money on R&D affront compared to Kobo to make money on contents in futures. It has been well discussed already that Amazon is selling Kindle Fire on loss to make money on contents the company will sell. However, it’s not clear how Kobo is selling the similar device at $199 – same as Fire – but still wants to make money on Vox without keeping control on contents. It’s understandable that Kobo will get some money from Zinio, PressReader, RDIO and GetJar by allowing them as part of Vox; but the question is whether that would be enough to keep Kobo a viable company to survive in future. From the consumer perspective, it seems Kobo Vox is far better choice than Kindle Fire for it’s openness to wide variety of apps I’ve just mentioned as a tablet and ereader.
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