The 6-inch Kobo Glo HD was first released back in April 2015. It was Kobo’s first ebook reader to come with a 300 ppi E Ink screen, and it came just a few months after the more expensive Kindle Voyage was released, the first 300 ppi ereader.
Now all signs are pointing to the Kobo Glo HD getting discontinued.
In fact Kobo customer support has started telling people just that.
Customer support can be a bit unreliable at times, but even so the Kobo Glo HD has been out of stock from Kobo and from retailers’ websites for the past few weeks now.
The release of the new Kobo Aura Edition 2 is starting to make a lot more sense.
Unfortunately it has a lower resolution screen than the Kobo Glo HD, and it has no benefits over it, and the price is only $10 lower so none of it really makes much sense.
Why would Kobo ditch the Glo HD in favor of an inferior model? Now they have no 6-inch ereaders with a high resolution screen. It makes no sense.
Perhaps they just figure that their average customer isn’t concerned with screen resolution enough to care.
If the oddly named Kobo Aura Edition 2 had something new or better to offer, or if it was priced lower, it would make a lot more sense for it to replace the Glo HD, but not at the current price and configuration.
It has been pretty obvious for a while with the discounting that this was on the cards.
I was holding off on a replacement for my Sony reader for the Aura one. But since it’s release with a capacitive screen, which I really am not a fan of, and possible poor battery life. Suspecting the Aura edition 2 would be the replacement for the Glo HD I bought a Glo HD in the last week.
I hope Kobo, unlike Sony, continue to support their products with updated firmware for a reasonable time after discontinuation.
I wouldn’t count on updates much anymore. It’s been almost a year since Kobo last updated their software, and it’s been almost a month and the Kobo Aura One’s battery drain issue still hasn’t been fixed. It seems like they don’t put much priority in software anymore, especially since it still has the same bugs as it did 5 years ago. They must be down to one developer at this pace. It’s a total joke…
If there was just some logic to the naming and marketing… Like, if we call it an Aura, it will have a capacitive screen, touch or glo will have IR. It all seems random.
I still have an older 6″ Aura, and I like the capacitive screen. If the new one had the Overdrive, that would help. As is, who knows what they were thinking.
I suspect they made the move because loss-leader ebook readers don’t make any sense anymore. (if they ever did). Kobo is having to do more discounting on ebooks ( Amazon price match) and ebook sales volume is not on hot growth path ( paper books aren’t going to disappear).
Probably at some point along the way, they’ll flush the H20 and bring back a 6″, 300ppi reader in the $149-159 range. (depending on how much Overdrive usage they measure on Aura One, perhaps a bit higher. )
Only Kobo has the numbers but I suspect that Kobo apps (non ereader based reading) outnumber the ereaders in terms of volume. So just not being a bright LCD/LED screen is a selling point.
As far as what does “Aura” mean as brand…. a light. ( axe Glo and it is consistent.). I wouldn’t be surprised to see the low end “Touch 2.0” disappear over time. Kobo should be looking to see how it gets assualted by the Fire HD8 and rough equivalents from Samsung/Lenovo/etc.. I suspect folks primarily driven by cost are going to go discount tablet.