Kobo Cause Amazon To Vox Out For New Tablet

UK retail company WHSmith have revealed the launch of a tablet computer made by their subsidiary Kobo in their stores, with the products considered to be a rival to Amazon’s highly successful Kindle Fire.

Following on from Kobo’s e-reader product (designed to compete with the Amazon Kindle) the Kobo Vox is a Google Android (Gingerbread)-powered tablet computer that will aim to go up against the American online shopping powerhouse in a different product genre.

With the Android connections, a 7-inch colour touch-screen, Wi-Fi capability and 8GB storage (with expandable memory), the Kobo Vox covers the basic specifications that most tablets already have, but is claimed by Kobo that the product is naturally a lot less of a ’customised’ version of Android than the Kindle Fire, which comes with a number of Amazon-branded services integrated.

However, WHSmith have noted that while it may not have a lot of in-house products to offer, the Kobo Vox is the ‘official e-reading’ partner of popular social networking website Facebook, a deal which will be carried over to the Vox allowing for a direct link-up between the two parties. Another feature being advertised is the increased accessibility to Android apps, with users able to quickly find over 15,000 on their system (although a much lower number will be able to be stored on the tablet at any one time).

With the Kindle Fire not yet released in Europe, the Kobo Vox could have a big opportunity to enter the cut-price tablet market, having now launched worldwide at a price of £169.99 (around $264, but could be lowered for the US market). While the price is potentially higher, will the Kobo Vox’s features and global presence be enough to see it compete with Amazon, or are they stepping out of their comfort zone with this new device?

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