Rakuten presents press conference of new ebook reader "kobo glo" and "kobo mini" Online live relay → end

From 15:30 on November 1, Rakuten is "Press Conference on New Ebook Reader"Was carried out. The situation was broadcast live on the net.

Ebook Rakuten : Revolution in reading. New fun.
http://kobo.rakuten.co.jp/

Rakuten Co., Ltd. Press Conference on New Ebook Reader
http://www.irwebcasting.com/live/121101/20/7bc46a9f75/index.html

USTREAM: rakuten-kobo: Press Conference on New E-Book Reader November 1, 2012. Breaking News
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/rakuten-kobo

【Rakuten Co., Ltd.】 Rakuten Group's Kobo company introduces two new ebook readers into the Japanese market
http://corp.rakuten.co.jp/newsrelease/2012/1101_3.html

The appearance of Grand Hyatt Tokyo where a press conference was held is as follows.


Inside the venue.


Hirofumi Mikigaya, Chairman and President of Rakuten Co., Ltd., entered the stage.



Kobo's mission is to "enjoy the reading fun of everyone"


Keep evolving constantly to spread reading fun for everyone kobo


The three directions of evolution, the first is "Improve usability"


WiFi setup, memory expansion with microSD card, various functions improvement


By using the microSD card, you can introduce about 600 to 1500 comics, about 30,000 text books, PDF data can be introduced in large quantities.


Three directions of evolution, the second is "Expansion of contents"


Contents are being added one after the other, including 2.75 million world contents and 60,000 Japanese contents


As monopoly precedent contents in kobo so far, there are Jiro Asada "Night of the Necromantic Society", Drucker's "Management", Naoto Kan "What I thought as the Prime Minister of Tokyo Electric Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant".


And the three directions of evolution, the third is "Enhancement of device lineup"


Here Mr. Mikitani handles suddenly into the bosom ... ...


A new terminal of kobo appeared.


The new terminal is "Kobo glo"When"Kobo miniIt is two models.


◆ kobo glo Main specifications
Screen: 6 inch E Ink Pearl display (16 gray scale gray scale)
Resolution: 758 x 1024
Color: Black Knight, Pink Sunset, Blue Moon, Silver Star
Corresponding file format: EPUB, PDF (only for PDF books sold at kobo e book store)
Built-in memory capacity / usable area: About 2 GB / approximately 1 GB (Text base book: Approximately 1000 volumes Comics: About 20 to 50 volumes)
Memory expansion: microSD (maximum 2 GB) / microSDHC (maximum 32 GB)
Wi-Fi (wireless LAN): 802.11 b / g / n (WEP / WPA / WPA 2)
PC connection method: USB (one microUSB cable included)
Size: 113.9 × 157.4 × 10 mm
Weight: 185 g
Approximate duration of charging: Up to approximately 30,000 pages of page turning can be done with one full charge, maximum of about 30 months of reading with a maximum of about 1 month



Color is like this




Price starts at 7980 yen including tax, reservation acceptance starting from today.


【Rakuten Ichiba】 kobo glo 【Sales: Rakuten kobo】 【Free shipping now】: Rakuten 24 kobo shop
http://item.rakuten.co.jp/rakuten24-kobo/i001281088016/

【Rakuten Ichiba】 kobo glo Extended warranty 1 year attachment 【Sales: Rakuten kobo】 【Free shipping now】: Rakuten 24 kobo shop
http://item.rakuten.co.jp/rakuten24-kobo/i001281088017/

◆ kobo mini Main specifications
Screen: 5 inches
Color: Black, White
※ The color of the snap back is green, ruby ​​red, purple three colors
Size: 101.6 × 133.1 × 10.3 mm
Weight: 134 g




"Kobo mini" will be shipped around 6980 yen including tax, around mid-December.


In addition, color terminal "Kobo arcWill be released soon.


◆ kobo arc main specifications
Screen: 7 inches
Color: Black, White
※ The color of the snap back is blue, two colors of purple
Size: 120 × 189 × 11.5 mm
Weight: 364 g

Applications for smartphone (Android, iOS) will also be available soon.


"Reading terminal for everyone"



"Reading revolution will continue"


"More books, more comics, more people all together."


The interview was over with the above.


◆ Q & A

Freelance Nishida:
Kindle and others, what is the advantage over competing terminals?

President Mikigaya:
I would like to appeal to a wider range of people by using points that can cooperate with the Rakuten market well. The biggest difference from competing terminals is that microSD can expand capacity. Strengths to be able to put a lot of contents with large capacity such as manga. I am confident in the design with color variation and the size easy to carry around.

Q:
Can we achieve the target of the content lineup of 200,000 volumes within the year?

Mikiya:
The current situation is 65,000 volumes, 130,000 volumes in 2 months, but since books come in in large units such as 10,000 volumes, it may be able to be achieved. There is a possibility that it will be a little late in January etc.

Journalist Matsumoto:
Although it was supposed to achieve 1 million unit sales within the year, what is the achievement status?

Mikiya:
Million vehicles are internal goal figures, only as a big dream, and so far it has not arrived so far. However, as far as I see the figures up to now I think that it is going well as a start. Because I think that the new terminal is strong for comics, I think that it is for Japanese, so we can expect acceleration of sales volume in that part.

Toyo economic Nikaido:
How do you think about administrative guidance from the Consumer Affairs Agency? Also, what is the current number of books?

Mikiya:
Originally scheduled was 30 thousand volumes, but it was delayed due to the operation. I must apologize in regard to this. Currently, information such as Wikipedia may be counted a little, but for others it sees pure manga and books etc.

ITmedia:
There was a problem with activation at the time of release of kobo, but has it improved this time? Also, I think that it was made a comment like "only some media are making noise," but what do you think about it now?

Mikiya:
The old terminal has been improved by updating the firmware so that it will be possible to set it within 1 minute if you connect Wi - Fi to future devices. Based on previous reflections, I will do my best in the future.

Nihon Keizai Shimbun Sugimoto:
Kindle has a 3G compatible model, is Rakuten planning to collaborate with e - access etc?

Mikiya:
Regarding the 3G model, we can not answer it now. However, I think that the main use of e-book terminals is to download and read contents in advance. Regarding 3G compliance, I would like to think about price considering the balance of convenience.

My navi news Osawa:
Please tell me the details on what you say that you sent kobo Touch to some Rakuten users.

Mikiya:
Regrettably, I can not answer for sales, sorry.

NHK Yasui:
With the entry of iPad mini, market for small tablet and e-book terminal is rising. What strategy will win in a fierce battle zone?

Mikiya:
There are special and wonderful contents called manga in Japan, but until now, the monochrome terminal has not been conscious of manga much. Thanks to kobo Touch, I found out that manga is very important as content, and that in order to read manga, various functions are necessary. Manga has characteristics such as large clearance of data file capacity, so you need to customize it to that. Therefore, with respect to koboglo, it is possible to extend it with a micro SD card so that comic books can be comfortably read in addition to character materials.

While I was lying down on an airplane, I read about 10 cartoons, but with a tablet it's heavy and my hands get tired. Because I do not have a battery, I thought that the e-book terminal is a good one. The main thing in the e-book market is the e-book terminal, the tablet is a different thing because it is divided into movies, video and so on. In the field of monochrome terminals we have absolute confidence.