A lot of people have started switching from Kindles to Kobos this past year because of Amazon making changes to the Kindle platform and locking down Kindle ebooks more than ever, but has the Kobo platform started to reach the enshittification stage as well?
I can’t help but notice a number of things changing for the worse with Kobo over the past couple of years. It’s getting to the point where there are more negative changes than positive changes. It’s not on the same level as Amazon, but there are a lot of little things that are steadily getting worse with Kobo too.
It seems like Kobo has been resting on their laurels for years now. There was a time when they were regularly expanding their store into more countries and taking over other failed ebook stores, but that hasn’t happened in a long time. And their ebook catalog is seriously lacking in some areas, especially when it comes to color content for their color ereaders, and it doesn’t seem to be getting better.
Furthermore, they have the most uncreative sales strategy ever. When it comes to deals on Kobo ereaders, they just keep doing the same $20 off sales a few times a year. They never do “big” sales. Even their Black Friday sales are just the same old $20 off deals that they always do. They never do trade-in deals or special upgrade promotions for long-time customers. They used to offer a lot of coupon codes for discounts on ebooks, but now the codes are much less frequent and less effective and they usually only apply to a certain list of books.
Evidence of a Decline
Kobo ereaders no longer support using multiple libraries through OverDrive. They removed the OverDrive login option awhile back so it’s no longer possible to use multiple library cards.
Kobo has raised the prices of their ereaders post release twice in the past two years now. People can point the finger at tariffs for this, but the fact is Amazon hasn’t raised the price of Kindles and Barnes and Noble hasn’t raised the price of Nooks during the same time frame.
Kobo refuses to release new BW models, despite countless requests for a Libra BW from customers. Right now Kobo only sells one current BW model. The Elipsa 2E had an outdated screen when it was released two years ago, and the Kobo Sage is 4 years old now and they stopped selling it in the US months ago.
Kobo’s price match guarantee is no longer guaranteed on certain books.
Kobo’s software updates have gone downhill over the past two years, with fewer new features getting added and more bugs getting introduced. They’ve only released one main update over the past year, when they used to release updates every few months, and the latest software update notoriously bricked a number of devices. To Kobo’s credit, I’ve seen a few reports of people getting sent new Kobos because of that, but it doesn’t look like they’ve actually fixed the problem with the software update yet.
They added some new accessibility features, including a screen reader, but it turns out they are very difficult to use and require different software with less features than the standard software, and the accessibility software is only available in Europe for some reason.
Kobo’s US distribution has worsened since their Walmart partnership ended. Now they only have one US partner, BlueProton, who regularly charges above MSRP for Kobo’s devices in the US. And they aren’t available in any retail stores to test before buying. Kobo launched their own Amazon store earlier this year, but they inexplicably don’t sell their ereaders from there, only covers.
Kobo no longer allows refunds on downloaded ebooks. On one hand this seems logical, but the problem is Kobo ereaders and apps automatically download ebooks after you purchase them, and once that happens you can no longer get a refund.
No more cash back on purchased ebooks and audiobooks. This seems to be another recent change for the worse.
Everyone in my family has a Kobo, and they all are very happy with it.
End of the story.
Please stop the Kobo bashing.
Agreed. I have each size of Kobo because I like switching out. I buy all my books from them and have never had any problem with them. I have also downloaded all of my books and have loaded them onto the Pocketbook Versa Pro since it is the lightest and smallest with page buttons – easy to use and take with me to chemo treatments. I think Kobo has done a good job with their devices and have never had any problems with their customer service reps. I am glad they added the software updates where can chose to update or skip instead of automatically updating. I have always ordered directly from Kobo and my devices are shipped to me from Idaho. They have arrived as timely as USPS can deliver and are packaged well. Even before Amazon made all of their negative changes I have always like Kobo devices over the Kindle PW which I have and rarely use. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and mine is that Kobo is doing a great job in their ereaders and website.
I may be wrong but your grievances sound like just that: grievances, some possibly indicating Kobo is a smaller business than Amazon’s Kindle and thus with smaller ressources.
But I don’t see much in terms of enshitification as I understand the term. I think the term actually applies more to Amazon with their ads and the priority given to the store and the lockdown of the devices and the ebook format.
Kobo has in fact reacted quickly and effectively by replacing the read it later app with Instapaper.
In agreement with Claude, I am under the impression that this blog is biased against Kobo and while Kobo might not provide enough news for sites such as this there really is no need to bash them to the extent on display in this article.