Borders And Kobo Announce Latest Chapter In E-Reader Story

Just what the confused e-reader consumer needs: yet another option.

But this one, the result of a partnership between Borders and Kobo, could be a game-changer. Unlike Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, and Sony’s e-Reader, the Borders/Kobo collaboration offers a way to read your favorite digital-format books without shelling out a few hundred bucks for another device to tote around and potentially lose or break.

Kobo, a spinoff from Canadian publisher Indigo that was known until this week as Shortcovers, already offers an open-platform service that’s compatible with smartphones and e-readers like the ones mentioned above. Borders.com will be offering Kobo’s service by the second quarter of next year; the brick-and-mortar stores currently sell Sony’s e-Reader, and it’s safe to assume that Kobo’s own e-readers (yes, more than one version) will appear on Borders' shelves once they’re released.

Borders has been taking a beating for not jumping into the e-reader fray right away, but at least it’s differentiating itself from the other brands by partnering with a platform-agnostic service. As a bookseller analyst told the Canadian Press, "As usual [Borders] is a little behind Barnes & Noble, [yet it’s] smart enough to know the future of e-books doesn't lie with any one device."

Assuming the market that Borders wishes to reach – “readers who buy a couple of books a year,” its CEO told the Times – already consolidated their mp3 players and cellphones into a single device, the ability to catch up on some Stephen King at the doctor’s office without having to lug the e-reader will be a very attractive option.

At least until that rumored Apple tablet comes along.