Kobo unveils limited edition Aura HD e-reader: 6.8-inch HD screen, ships April 25th for $169 (hands-on)
Late last year, Kobo went small. The introduction of the 5-inch Mini was no doubt, at least in part, an attempt to offer up a bit of variety in a space whose parameters are largely defined …
Context & Ripple Effects
Kobo's arc runs from commodity hardware to deliberate differentiation. It entered the market in 2010 as a $150 budget reader sold through Borders, then outlived that retail partner while staying alive against Amazon and Barnes & Noble — even timing a release the day before the touch-enabled Nook announcement in 2011. Late last year it went small with the 5-inch Mini; today it goes the other way.
The Aura HD's 6.8-inch HD screen at $169 is a premium play in a category whose dimensions had been largely fixed around 6 inches, and the pickup across eight outlets including BBC, Wired, CNET and Ars Technica suggests real appetite for news of anyone stretching the e-reader form factor.
First-order effects
- Buyers get a large-screen E Ink option priced between standard 6-inch readers and full tablets, with the limited-edition label capping supply and testing whether readers will pay up for screen size alone.
Second-order effects
- Amazon and Barnes & Noble face pressure to answer with larger-screen E Ink models of their own or cede the big-screen reading niche to Kobo, whose store and Writing Life self-publishing platform gain a flagship device to anchor them.
Third-order effects
- If premium E Ink sells, the e-reader market fragments into distinct size tiers instead of converging on one 6-inch standard — dedicated readers surviving tablet competition by competing on reading ergonomics rather than features.
The trend: E-reader makers are differentiating on screen size and quality as tablets compress the undifferentiated middle of the market.