Kobo is running a “sale” on the Kobo Clara BW and the Kobo Libra Colour, but it’s hard to consider it a real sale when both are selling for the same prices as they were last month.
The Kobo Clara BW is now marked down to $139.99 from $159.99, and the Kobo Libra Colour is marked down to $229.99 from $259.99.
Kobo raised the prices of those models by $20 and $30 respectively exactly one month ago today, so they’re “on sale” at the exact same prices they’ve been selling for since the last price hike in February 2025.
Just once I’d like to see Kobo run a real sale like Amazon does with Kindles during Prime Day and Black Friday. Right now Amazon has several Kindle bundles on sale for over $100 off, and the Scribe bundles are over $200 off.
But we’ll never seen anything like that from Kobo, unfortunately. They just keep doing the same $20-$30 off sales over and over again every few months, and now that they’ve increased the prices of Kobo ereaders for the third time in as many years, it doesn’t even feel like a true sale anymore.
Oh well, it’s nice to get a discount anyway. I think this is the first time the Kobo Clara BW has been discounted since last year. The Libra Colour was just selling for $199 a little over a month ago so it’s hard to feel good about the current “sale”, but the price will probably never go that low again until they start selling refurbished units.
Also, if you’re in Canada or the UK the Kobo Libra 2 is back in stock as certified refurbished. It’s £149.99 in the UK, and $199.99 in Canada, and it comes with a free sleepcover. That seems kind of pricey for a device that’s 5 years old, but it was one of Kobo’s most popular models. It’s a shame they never released a newer version.
Kindles can get big discounts because they’re just a small portion of what Amazon is selling so Amazon can earn the money elsewhere. Kobo only sells ereaders, so they can’t do that. Nothing wrong or weird about it.
Wait until you learn what Rakuten is…
I know what Rakuten is. But doesn’t change a think.
Kindle is a part of Amazon. Amazon can substitute the missing finance from other products.
Kobo is owned by Rakuten but works as a separate company. If they don’t do well on their own, Rakuten can shut them down or sell. Not the same thing at all.
Org structure is hardly relevant in comparing conglomerates, much less in comparing non-peer orgs. It has been 15 years since acquiring Kobo; their integration and direction in relation to Kindle is not uncertain.
Oversimplification of corporations and politics is rife among consumers of every industry and propagates like misinformation. Internal product teams are regularly as disposable as subsidiaries. They may be less likely to be divested but Amazon would not hesitate to fold the remnants of their origins or bookstore hardwares if they fell too far behind. The development and financial precedents in Amazon and its peers are too numerous to list here. Very few tech giants rely on consumer goods and core identity over services and finance.
A more convincing reason may be Rakuten’s noncompetitive strategy with Amazon, even in Japan where they take a more local approach. A more immediate reason is Rakuten’s lack of a logistics network in order to compete on price to begin with. For consumers hoping for increased competition, choice, and innovation, the hardware will likely have to come from microbrands. On the upside, avoiding an Amazon-like race to the bottom maintains a steady, if stagnant, competition.
The product and pricing competition involves corporate strategy and the broader market, not a traditional meritocratic comparison of Kobo, Inc. and the Kindle product team of the devices division of Amazon. Underdog idealism is flippant and unproductive. Kindle may also see similar price increases under electronics manufacturing pressures, but the loss of value competition over a larger and more premium brand is notable as the licensing and distribution ecosystems become fully established.