Kobo eReader
Title
Kobo eReader
Subject
hardware: e-reader
Description
Historical context
(by Z. Stachniak)
Possibly the earliest attempt to create a publicly accessible digital library of books was Project Gutenberg, initiated by Michael S. Hart in 1971. Initially, its Electronic Public Library texts were stored in plain ASCII format on a Xerox Sigma V mainframe computer at the Materials Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois.
The Project Gutenberg Philosophy is to make information, books and other materials available to the general public in
forms [such as ASCII] a vast majority of the computers, programs and people can easily read, use, quote, and search.
[M. Hart, The History and Philosophy of Project Gutenberg, 1992.]
Project Gutenberg reached its 1,000th e-book in 1996, and by 2025 the collection had grown to more than 75,000 titles.
The privatization of the Internet and the creation of the World Wide Web in the mid-1990s offered an opportunity to sell e-books online. Bibliobytes, one of the earliest online e-book distribution sites, was founded in 1993 and offered both free and commercial e-books over the Internet. In Canada, Bookshelf.ca—the country’s first online bookstore—opened in 1995 in Guelph, Ontario. The e-book reading era had begun.
The popularization of personal digital gadgets in the consumer electronics market—beginning with handheld calculators and pagers, and later including mobile phones, personal digital assistants, and handheld and tablet computers—made the creation of dedicated portable e-reading devices, known as e-readers, the next logical step in the development of e-book services.
The first e-readers appeared in the late 1990s. The NuvoMedia Rocket eBook and the SoftBook Reader were introduced in 1998. Sony released the Librie in 2004, the first commercial e-reader to use an electronic paper display (E Ink) developed by E Ink Corporation. In 2007, Amazon launched the original Kindle, inaugurating a highly successful line of e-readers. By 2010, more than 200 mainstream and niche companies were offering e-reading devices, including Toronto-based Kobo Inc., which introduced its Kobo eReader that year.
In 2025, the e-reader market was dominated by Amazon Kindle, with Rakuten Kobo maintaining a strong presence in Canada, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific regions. The market was estimated at around USD 8.5 billion, with forecasts predicting steady growth throughout the decade, driven by continued consumer demand for digital reading formats and portable, eye-friendly screens. Emerging trends—such as larger color E Ink displays and a range of AI features that expand the use of these devices beyond traditional reading—further blurred the lines between e-readers and digital notebooks and tablets.
Kobo Inc.
The Kobo eReader was launched by Kobo Inc. on March 24, 2010, with first deliveries scheduled for May of that year. However, the origins of the device date back to 2006, when Canadian entrepreneur Michael Serbinis joined Indigo Books and Music, Canada’s largest bookstore chain. Since joining Indigo, Serbinis had been developing the idea of a mobile web-based e-reading service that would allow authors and publishers to offer their texts as e-books, while enabling consumers to access and read their selections in a “device-neutral” way anytime, anywhere, on any device.
In the end, such a platform—Shortcovers—was launched by Indigo in 2009. Michael Tamblyn, who was hired by Serbinis that year, played a key role in the Shortcovers venture, bringing a wealth of experience as a co-founder of Bookshelf.ca, Canada’s first online bookstore (acquired by Indigo in 1998).
Less than a year after going live, Shortcovers was providing e-content in Adobe EPUB format to customers in over 200 countries. It offered e-reading applications for a wide range of devices, including Apple iPhone, RIM BlackBerry, Palm Pre, Google Android smartphones, as well as Apple and PC desktops, and any e-reader compatible with EPUB format, such as the Barnes & Noble Nook or Sony Reader.
On December 15, 2009, with funding from Indigo, Borders Group, Inc. (U.S.), Cheung Kong Holdings (Hong Kong), and REDGroup Retail (Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore), Shortcovers formally spun out from Indigo to operate under the name Kobo, Inc., with Michael Serbinis as CEO.
The rebranded company continued its cross-platform e-book service approach, expanding its platform with additional smartphone, desktop, and tablet reading software, and introducing its own dedicated e-reader devices. It built a strong consortium of investors, publishers, retailers, and device manufacturers worldwide, establishing a global e-reading service with a distribution network covering the U.S., Canada, the U.K., the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and other regions.
We believe consumers want choice, and the freedom to read on any device. Building great eReading applications and
partnering with leading device manufacturers is a recipe for success in this quickly growing market. [Michael Serbinis, 2010]
The first Kobo e-reader was launched on March 24, 2010, with initial deliveries in May of that year. An upgraded version, the Kobo WiFi, was released in October. Sales of Kobo's e-readers through retail outlets such as Indigo, Future Shop, and Borders were strong, generating close to $100 million in revenue during the first year alone .
In 2011, Kobo was acquired by Rakuten Group, Inc., a Japanese technology conglomerate based in Tokyo, while Kobo’s headquarters remained in Toronto. With Rakuten’s network of over 50 million customers worldwide, Kobo was able to expand internationally more quickly. Three years later, Michael Serbinis stepped down as Kobo’s CEO and was succeeded by Takahito Aiki, with Michael Tamblyn becoming president. In 2016, Tamblyn replaced Aiki as Kobo’s CEO.
Over the years, Kobo has continually enhanced its e-readers through software and hardware improvements, releasing a wide variety of devices listed below.
Kobo eReader
The Kobo eReader was a black-and-white device featuring a 6-inch, 8-tone grayscale E Ink screen. It was designed without Wi-Fi connectivity; instead, titles in EPUB or PDF formats had to be downloaded to a desktop using an appropriate Kobo desktop application and then transferred to the e-reader using a USB cable. Kobo e-books could also be loaded over Bluetooth from a compatible PC or smartphone.
The device offered 1 GB of storage, less than other e-readers such as Kindle (2 GB). It could store up to 1,000 e-books and came preloaded with 100 public domain titles. Storage could be expanded by up to 4 GB using an SD card.
Although the Kobo eReader lacked some of the features found in other e-readers, it was inexpensive ($150 at launch) and praised for its responsive and intuitive e-reading interface, as well as several unique design choices. Most buttons were positioned on the side to reduce accidental presses, while a large blue four-way navigation button on the front allowed for easy page navigation. The device featured a quilted rubber backing to improve grip and prevent it from sliding off surfaces.
The Kobo eReader was designed by Ian Barlow, Pamela Hilborn, Jeff Howard, and Tai Toh with engineering support from Fred Atangan Robert Beghian, Lee Chew, Louis-Philippe Gagnon, Sameer Hasan, Nazuk Jain, Dan Leibu, Jean-Philippe Lemieux, David Lifshitz, and Sergey Perunov.
Kobo e-readers 2010-2024
(after: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobo_eReader)
Kobo eReader, technical specifications
(by Z. Stachniak)
Possibly the earliest attempt to create a publicly accessible digital library of books was Project Gutenberg, initiated by Michael S. Hart in 1971. Initially, its Electronic Public Library texts were stored in plain ASCII format on a Xerox Sigma V mainframe computer at the Materials Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois.
The Project Gutenberg Philosophy is to make information, books and other materials available to the general public in
forms [such as ASCII] a vast majority of the computers, programs and people can easily read, use, quote, and search.
[M. Hart, The History and Philosophy of Project Gutenberg, 1992.]
Project Gutenberg reached its 1,000th e-book in 1996, and by 2025 the collection had grown to more than 75,000 titles.
The privatization of the Internet and the creation of the World Wide Web in the mid-1990s offered an opportunity to sell e-books online. Bibliobytes, one of the earliest online e-book distribution sites, was founded in 1993 and offered both free and commercial e-books over the Internet. In Canada, Bookshelf.ca—the country’s first online bookstore—opened in 1995 in Guelph, Ontario. The e-book reading era had begun.
The popularization of personal digital gadgets in the consumer electronics market—beginning with handheld calculators and pagers, and later including mobile phones, personal digital assistants, and handheld and tablet computers—made the creation of dedicated portable e-reading devices, known as e-readers, the next logical step in the development of e-book services.
The first e-readers appeared in the late 1990s. The NuvoMedia Rocket eBook and the SoftBook Reader were introduced in 1998. Sony released the Librie in 2004, the first commercial e-reader to use an electronic paper display (E Ink) developed by E Ink Corporation. In 2007, Amazon launched the original Kindle, inaugurating a highly successful line of e-readers. By 2010, more than 200 mainstream and niche companies were offering e-reading devices, including Toronto-based Kobo Inc., which introduced its Kobo eReader that year.
In 2025, the e-reader market was dominated by Amazon Kindle, with Rakuten Kobo maintaining a strong presence in Canada, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific regions. The market was estimated at around USD 8.5 billion, with forecasts predicting steady growth throughout the decade, driven by continued consumer demand for digital reading formats and portable, eye-friendly screens. Emerging trends—such as larger color E Ink displays and a range of AI features that expand the use of these devices beyond traditional reading—further blurred the lines between e-readers and digital notebooks and tablets.
Kobo Inc.
The Kobo eReader was launched by Kobo Inc. on March 24, 2010, with first deliveries scheduled for May of that year. However, the origins of the device date back to 2006, when Canadian entrepreneur Michael Serbinis joined Indigo Books and Music, Canada’s largest bookstore chain. Since joining Indigo, Serbinis had been developing the idea of a mobile web-based e-reading service that would allow authors and publishers to offer their texts as e-books, while enabling consumers to access and read their selections in a “device-neutral” way anytime, anywhere, on any device.
In the end, such a platform—Shortcovers—was launched by Indigo in 2009. Michael Tamblyn, who was hired by Serbinis that year, played a key role in the Shortcovers venture, bringing a wealth of experience as a co-founder of Bookshelf.ca, Canada’s first online bookstore (acquired by Indigo in 1998).
Less than a year after going live, Shortcovers was providing e-content in Adobe EPUB format to customers in over 200 countries. It offered e-reading applications for a wide range of devices, including Apple iPhone, RIM BlackBerry, Palm Pre, Google Android smartphones, as well as Apple and PC desktops, and any e-reader compatible with EPUB format, such as the Barnes & Noble Nook or Sony Reader.
On December 15, 2009, with funding from Indigo, Borders Group, Inc. (U.S.), Cheung Kong Holdings (Hong Kong), and REDGroup Retail (Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore), Shortcovers formally spun out from Indigo to operate under the name Kobo, Inc., with Michael Serbinis as CEO.
The rebranded company continued its cross-platform e-book service approach, expanding its platform with additional smartphone, desktop, and tablet reading software, and introducing its own dedicated e-reader devices. It built a strong consortium of investors, publishers, retailers, and device manufacturers worldwide, establishing a global e-reading service with a distribution network covering the U.S., Canada, the U.K., the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and other regions.
We believe consumers want choice, and the freedom to read on any device. Building great eReading applications and
partnering with leading device manufacturers is a recipe for success in this quickly growing market. [Michael Serbinis, 2010]
The first Kobo e-reader was launched on March 24, 2010, with initial deliveries in May of that year. An upgraded version, the Kobo WiFi, was released in October. Sales of Kobo's e-readers through retail outlets such as Indigo, Future Shop, and Borders were strong, generating close to $100 million in revenue during the first year alone .
In 2011, Kobo was acquired by Rakuten Group, Inc., a Japanese technology conglomerate based in Tokyo, while Kobo’s headquarters remained in Toronto. With Rakuten’s network of over 50 million customers worldwide, Kobo was able to expand internationally more quickly. Three years later, Michael Serbinis stepped down as Kobo’s CEO and was succeeded by Takahito Aiki, with Michael Tamblyn becoming president. In 2016, Tamblyn replaced Aiki as Kobo’s CEO.
Over the years, Kobo has continually enhanced its e-readers through software and hardware improvements, releasing a wide variety of devices listed below.
Kobo eReader
The Kobo eReader was a black-and-white device featuring a 6-inch, 8-tone grayscale E Ink screen. It was designed without Wi-Fi connectivity; instead, titles in EPUB or PDF formats had to be downloaded to a desktop using an appropriate Kobo desktop application and then transferred to the e-reader using a USB cable. Kobo e-books could also be loaded over Bluetooth from a compatible PC or smartphone.
The device offered 1 GB of storage, less than other e-readers such as Kindle (2 GB). It could store up to 1,000 e-books and came preloaded with 100 public domain titles. Storage could be expanded by up to 4 GB using an SD card.
Although the Kobo eReader lacked some of the features found in other e-readers, it was inexpensive ($150 at launch) and praised for its responsive and intuitive e-reading interface, as well as several unique design choices. Most buttons were positioned on the side to reduce accidental presses, while a large blue four-way navigation button on the front allowed for easy page navigation. The device featured a quilted rubber backing to improve grip and prevent it from sliding off surfaces.
The Kobo eReader was designed by Ian Barlow, Pamela Hilborn, Jeff Howard, and Tai Toh with engineering support from Fred Atangan Robert Beghian, Lee Chew, Louis-Philippe Gagnon, Sameer Hasan, Nazuk Jain, Dan Leibu, Jean-Philippe Lemieux, David Lifshitz, and Sergey Perunov.
Kobo e-readers 2010-2024
(after: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobo_eReader)
| NAME | MODEL | DATE of release |
|---|---|---|
| Kobo eReade | N416 | May 2010 |
| Kobo WiFi | N289 | October 2010 |
| obo Touch | N905 | May 2011 |
| Kobo Glo | B613 | September 2012 |
| Kobo Mini | N705 | September 2012 |
| Kobo Aura HD | N204B | April 2013 |
| Kobo Aura | N514 | August 2013 |
| Kobo Aura H2O | N250 | October 2014 |
| Kobo Glo HD | N437 | May 2015 |
| Kobo Touch 2.0 | N587 | September 2015 |
| Kobo Aura Edition 2 | N236 | September 2016 |
| Kobo Aura One | N709 | September 2016 |
| Kobo Aura H2O Edition 2 | N867 | May 2017 |
| Kobo Clara HD | N249 | June 2018 |
| Kobo Forma | N782 | October 2018 |
| Kobo Libra H2O | N873 | September 2019 |
| Kobo Nia | N306 | July 2020 |
| Kobo Elipsa | N604 | June 2021 |
| Kobo Libra 2 | N418 | October 2021 |
| Kobo Sage | N778 | October 2021 |
| Kobo Clara | N506 | September 2022 |
| Kobo Elipsa 2E | N605 | Mid 2023 |
| Kobo Libra Colour | N428 | April 2024 |
| Kobo Clara BW | N365 | April 2024 |
| Kobo Clara Colour | N367 | April 2024 |
Kobo eReader, technical specifications
- display: 6-inch E Ink display with 8 level grayscale; 600x800 resolution
- display formats: ePub and PDF
- fonts: 5 font sizes and two types: Georgia (serif) and Trebuchet (sans-serif)
- processor: Freescale Semiconductor (?)
- memory: 1 GB; SD card slot up to 4 GB
- storage capacity: up to 1000 eBooks
- connectivity: USB and Bluetooth (with selected smartphones and tablets)
- battery life: up to 8,000 page turns (approx. 2 weeks)
- dimensions: 120mm x 184mm x 10mm.
- weight: 221g
- Kobo eReader, model N416 and its documentation,
- Kobo Desktop Application, Mac OS Setup, Kobo Inc., 2010,
- Kobo Desktop Application, Windows Setup, Kobo Inc., 2010,
- Kobo eReader User Guide, Kobo Inc., 2010,
- Kobo eReader Quick Start Guide, Kobo Inc., 2010.
Creator
Kobo Inc., 364 Richmond Street West, Suite 300, Toronto, Canada.
Coverage
2010 --
Files
Citation
Kobo Inc., 364 Richmond Street West, Suite 300, Toronto, Canada., “Kobo eReader,” York University Computer Museum Canada, accessed December 26, 2025, https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/items/show/322.