Borders Drops Kobo, Libre Prices
0
Borders is in trouble. At least as far as the e-reader business is concerned. It did have the cheapest e-book reader on the market just a couple of months ago but Amazon turned the market upside down by introducing Kindle WiFi and putting it up for sale for $139. That move essentially took away all the advantages that those cheap e-readers such as Kobo had. The only move left for Borders was to drop its e-readers’ prices yet again, which happened on Tuesday. Kobo Reader and Libre are now up for grabs for $129 and $99 respectively. E-book reader prices may be coming down but not all will survive the future price wars.
We’re committed to making it as easy as possible for all Borders customers to enjoy eReading… As the demand for e-readers grows, we believe it is important to provide accessibility to a variety of devices. By reducing the price of our best-selling digital devices, we’re enabling even more Borders customers to purchase eReaders at a great value,
said Mike Edwards, Borders’ chief executive. If we move beyond the PR spin, it is very clear that Borders is struggling to keep up with Amazon but is not quite desperate to pull the nuclear option. Kobo Reader does have its fans but it’s only $10 cheaper than Kindle. Does if really offer a better bang for buck than Kindle?
Let’s make no mistake about it. Free (or something close to it) e-readers are the future. At this point, the top players in this market are not ready to be that aggressive. If the goal is to sell more e-books, giving e-readers for free is a good way to encourage more people to buy e-books (or sign them up for e-book subscription plans). Unfortunately, a lot of e-readers will die before we get there (e.g. Plastic Logic’s Que Reader). These recent price drops were expected but how low will the prices go before one of these top players pulls the plug on its e-reader? That remains to be seen.
