While Amazon is the default ebook retailer and ebook reader manufacturer that most people go to, there are still other players out there that have a steady following. One of those is Kobo, which was acquired by Japanese online retail giant Rakuten back in 2011. And now they’re adding a new feature to their mobile app that should give more incentive to people tired of the big A to shift to theirs. Starting today in selected countries, audiobooks are now available for Kobo mobile apps.
Kobo actually has a pretty good global reach as both its ereaders and its ebooks services are available in 190 countries. They currently have 5 million ebooks in their library. Now that they will also be adding audio books to this database, that number will obviously expand and hopefully, this will also mean that more subscribers or buyers will go to Kobo to purchase their reading, or in this case, listening materials.
You can buy the audio books either “ala carte”, as you would any other ebook or as part of their subscription service of $10 per month which gives you one audio book per month. Audible, Amazon’s own audio book subscription service, is more expensive at $14.95, but it gives you 30% discount on other audio books. Kobo didn’t specify if there is any discount, but since they give access to discounted ebooks normally, maybe there will also be some here.
Audiobooks on Kobo mobile apps are already available in Canada, the US, the UK, Australia and New Zealand when the mobile app is updated to the latest version. You will be able to try it out for free through a 30-day trial.
VIA: The Verge
