Kobo’s new web app, released earlier this week, is a great first move at breaking free from Apple’s App Store extortion. Good for Kobo, I say. Unfortunately, it keeps the same design and user experience as the official Kobo app, which means it’s designed to be a storefront first, and a reading app second. Unless you’re stuck with Kobo, there are better options out there.
Like Amazon’s Kindle web app from last August, the Kobo web app is really a website that can store data on your device even when you’re offline. This means you can download and read ebooks without a live connection. [Edit: My description here is badly worded and confusing. To clarify, you have to be online to download anything. Once you've done that, then you can access those downloaded files in the future regardless of whether you've got an active wireless connection.] It also means Kobo can offer it to (for example) iPad and iPhone users directly, instead of having to request Apple’s permission first.
But unlike Amazon’s Kindle web app, the interface is designed to benefit Kobo more than its customers, by reserving about two thirds of the screen for Kobo’s own use. The difference is striking when you look at the two web apps side by side, so let’s do just that:
The green parts that I’ve marked indicate the “store” section of the interface.
On the Kindle web app, it’s all about creating a user experience that emphasizes reading — it’s all about your ebooks, your library. You’re in control of what you see each time you open the web app. And when you’re ready to shop, you tap the button and the entire interface switches to the Kindle Store. Amazon’s approach is more sensible, because if you’re a customer/reader, your primary need when you open an ereader app is to read; shopping for more ebooks is important, but secondary.
It’s true that there are lots of ereader apps that can fulfill that primary reading need, but unfortunately for the vast majority of us, each retailer’s DRM/format scheme prevents us from straying beyond their custom apps. We’re stuck with the app that the retailer provides — and that means if you’re a Kobo customer, more likely than not you’ll be reading your ebooks “within” Kobo’s store.
Unfortunately, this isn’t a new path for Kobo. Here are side by side comparisons of the current App Store apps for Kobo and Kindle:
Again, green indicates the “store” section; again, Kobo claims the majority of the interface for itself, leaving you just one third of the screen to browse your own library.
I don’t know why Kobo keeps doing this, other than I suspect the company is aggressively trying to boost sales. By contrast, I imagine Amazon enjoys strong enough sales that it can afford to hand over the full interface to its customers. But I also suspect that Amazon intentionally keeps the private library and public store concepts separate in order to provide a more intimate experience for its customers.
With this and my last critique of Kobo, it’s starting to look like I really don’t like the eternal third place runner in the ebook retailer race. That’s not true! I just don’t like it when a business pushes too far into its customers’ personal spheres, and that line is very easy to cross when we’re in the digital world. No matter how “e” publishing becomes, a quality reading experience is still essentially a private experience — a silent connection between the reader and the author that takes place in the inner world of the mind. I wish Kobo would take that concept more seriously.
By Kurt May 19, 2012 - 12:00 PM
Why are you comparing two completely different screens in the Kobo and Kindle App Store apps? That is the Kobo app homepage / dashboard not the user’s library. Compare the library to the library or the Kobo screen shown here to the kindle app’s user dashboard (if it even has one).
Also, that is not a “store” in the Kobo App Store app screenshot, there is no store in the app at all. Those are free books available to all Kobo users via their dashboard. Maybe you could instead compare those free one-click offerings in the Kobo app to what the Kindle app offers its users.
Misrepresentation can harm credibility…
By Chris Walters May 19, 2012 - 1:02 PM
But of course I’m not comparing which app has the best dashboard — Kindle doesn’t have one at all — but rather which app has a better user interface when first launched. In my opinion, an app’s first screen is the “home” screen, regardless of what the developer or vendor might call it, and those screenshots represent each app’s “home” screen. (Unless you were reading a book previously, in which case both apps correctly open to the last page read.)
As for what Kobo offers in the “store” section, when you compare the two Kobo apps I think you can see what the true purpose of that section is for. In the app store version, all the promoted books are free, but that’s because Kobo can only offer free things there unless it wants to hand over 30% of each sale to Apple. By contrast, the new web app replaces those free books with full price new releases and bestsellers, reserving the bottommost row (you have to scroll up to see it) for free books.
Regardless of the books being offered, in both cases that section is reserved for vendor use, not customer use, so in essence it’s “store” territory.
By Bill Jones May 20, 2012 - 8:03 PM
As someone who has used both services extensively, i have two things to say:
1 kobo’s homescreen is a better launch pad than kindles’s library bc it displays the reader’s last read books in the top row (ie easier to find than in an aplhabetised list) and when I go to this page it makes browsing/searching for new books much easier than on kindle’s cloud reader where I hv to explicitly tap on a store link (ie it’s inconvenient)
2 seeing as this page is plasted with ads promoting the kindle, I think you should come clean and let everyone know you’re a shill for Amazon.
BJ
By Chris Walters May 20, 2012 - 9:53 PM
Re. #1: Seriously? If you’ve truly used both apps extensively, then you should already know that both companies’ iOS apps offer the exact same three ways to sort the user’s library: by Recent, by Title, and by Author.
But it gets worse (for Kobo, at least). When it comes to the web apps, Kindle still offers all three sorting options, while Kobo only offers Recent! On a related note, Kobo’s dashboard/home also sorts exclusively by Recent. But that’s really not the larger issue here, which is that Kobo’s dashboard/home screen only exists for promotional purposes, and not to improve the user experience.
And if you think tapping a store link is inconvenient, then what about tapping an unlabeled “menu” icon (three horizontal lines), then tapping “Library”, in order to see your full library in the Kobo iOS app? That’s two extra taps required for Kobo, versus zero taps for Kindle. Talk about inconvenient!
To put it another way, that’s like arguing that having to pull open the door to a store in order to go inside is inconvenient, but letting the retailer go into the customer’s home and fill his living room with racks of merchandise is a better solution.
Re. #2: Thank you for mentioning this. Not for calling me a shill, but for drawing my attention to the Kobo affiliate program. I got pretty defensive at first, because the last time I looked at my affiliate memberships, I cut out Nook because they’d withdrawn from Google’s program, and Kobo didn’t offer any affiliate program that I was aware of. After reading your comment I went back and looked at both companies, and I see that they have new affiliate offers. Assuming I can get accepted, expect to see a wider variety of ereader device banners in the sidebar in the near future.
By Eric Welch May 21, 2012 - 11:18 AM
I have — and use — all four of the major reading apps: Kindle, Nook, iPlay, and Kobo (iBooks just isn’t in the same league so while I have it on my iPhone, I rarely use it.) I tried out the new Kobo web but did not find the home screen as noxious as you did. Still, the Kindle remains my default and is now where I purchase 95% of my books. The “last page read linkage” works better across my devices (I have iPhone, Android tablet, Color Nook, Kindle3 and Kindle Fire and often read on my laptop – my wife uses a touchscreen Nook) although it’s gotten better on Nook books. Another great feature of the Kindle app is the way it handles highlights. As someone who writes a lot of book reviews (135 last year on Goodreads) I appreciate the ability to highlight a passage, then go to Kindle.amazon.com where all my highlights are located and then just cut and paste quotes into the review or review significant passages. To my knowledge none of the others does this.
By Eric Welch May 21, 2012 - 11:24 AM
I should have also mentioned to wonderful feature of being able to easily send documents and magazine articles (especially using Readability) to a specific Kindle (I send most to my Fire but some to my Android Tablet.) The only thing I miss about the Kindle app is the ability to divide into multiple page views as you can on Nook and iPlay apps. The biggest drawback to the Kobo app has been its predilection to download ALL of your books onto whatever device you put it on. If you have a fair number of books, that’s significant. A limitation of the Kindle software is the 5 device limitation which I don;t think the others have – or at least I haven’t run into it yet.
By Kobo’s new web app: good for Kobo, but not for readers | The Passive Voice June 13, 2012 - 11:20 PM
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