Walmart is Kobo’s lone retail partner in the US and they recently created a new listing for the 6-inch Kobo Aura on their website and they’re calling it the “Exclusive Walmart eBooks Edition”.
So now Walmart has two separate pages for the Kobo Aura on the Kobo section of their website. On the old page 3rd-party sellers are selling the Kobo Aura for $129.
Meanwhile the Exclusive Walmart Kobo Aura is selling for $69.96 with free shipping.
What makes it “exclusive” is anyone’s guess. The description just says the same thing as the regular listing, minus the comparison chart.
Saying it’s a Walmart eBooks Edition doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a Kobo device connected to the Kobo store. Walmart doesn’t actually sell ebooks; they just direct people to Kobo’s website with a Walmart logo.
But if it’s exactly the same as the regular Kobo Aura why did they create a separate new page for it?
Walmart has been selling the Kobo Aura for $69 for quite a while; when they first started selling it last year it was $99. Kobo sells it for $119 from their website, which makes no sense considering the superior Kobo Clara HD is only $10 more.
So what’s the deal with the new listing for an Exclusive Walmart Kobo Aura? Is it just some kind of marketing ploy? Or is there actually something different about it aside from having a Walmart logo instead of a Kobo logo onscreen?
I would like to remove the Wal-Mart splash page from mine. Anybody know how? This was never mentioned in any advertising.
Somewhere in the Kobo forum there’s directions on how to change the affiliate ID to get rid of undesired logos.
I believe it involves plugging your Kobo in, opening up the .conf file on your computer using a text editor and changing the Kobo affiliate to something else.
69.96 that “strategic” pricing though 😂
I believe the Walmart edition Kobo e-readers are sold at a subsidised price in exchange for the book cover screensaver being blocked off and replaced with the the Walmart eBooks logo as the only screensaver option, like with FNAC affiliated Kobo e-readers that seem to have their logo as the only screensaver option (I believe FNAC sells their Kobo e-readers subsidised, but as of this comment, I haven’t checked the listings on the FNAC website in comparison to the Kobo e-reader store for France).