Digital bookseller Kobo launched its premium subscription, Kobo Plus, in the United States this week. The plan comes in three tiers, Kobo Plus Read, Kobo Plus Listen, and Kobo Plus Read & Listen. Its wide selection of titles and low monthly price could challenge Amazon’s digital book dominance.
Kobo Plus plans start at just $7.99 monthly for the Read and Listen plans. The program costs $9.99 per month for unlimited ebooks and audiobooks. For comparison, Kindle Unlimited, which offers only ebooks, costs $9.99 monthly, and Audible Plus, which focuses on audiobooks, costs $7.95 monthly. Amazon owns both Kindle Unlimited and Audible Plus, and the price of both subscriptions would be $18 monthly as opposed to $9.99 on Kobo Plus.
The value of the new subscription service grows when you consider how many titles are available from Kobo compared to Amazon-owned services. Kobo Plus offers over 1.3 million ebook titles and 100,000 audiobooks that users can read and listen to unlimitedly. Compare that to a million ebook titles on Kindle Unlimited and 11 thousand audiobook titles on Audible Plus.
It’s also worth noting that you get a Kobo audiobook credit on the Listen plans, allowing you to select any premium audiobook title not included in the subscription plan. This is the equivalent of an Audible credit you get when subscribing to Audible Premium Plus, which costs about $15 per month.
And it’s not just the subscription service that Kobo is challenging Amazon with. The company is also releasing a new eReader, the Kobo Elipsa 2E, in the United States this week. The device features a 10.3-inch E ink display, 32GB of storage, and an included stylus for taking notes. The Elipsa 2E could potentially give the Kindle Oasis a run for its money. It’s available for preorder now and will be available for sale starting April 19th.
Kobo Elipsa 2E
Get the latest ebook reader from Kobo. Preorder now! Goes on sale on April 19th.
