Kobo Enters The Tablet Wars With Vox

News by Rob W. Hart October 20, 2011 5 comments
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Kobo Announces New Tablet, The Vox

Kobo has entered the tablet wars with their announcement of the Vox, a web-enabled device that's being positioned as a rival to the Kindle Fire. 

The Vox will retail for $199.99, and here are the specs: 

  • 7-inch screen with a resolution of 1024 x 600 and an anti-glare coating
  • 8 gigabytes of internal storage, with a microSD slot that can handle up to 32 gigabyte cards
  • An 800-megahertz processor and 512 megabytes of RAM
  • Wi-fi only
  • Runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread
  • Access to the Android Market for apps

So it has less processing power than the Fire, but it does offer access to the Android Market, and a little more flexibility for storage (the Fire is locked into 8 gigabytes and will rely on Amazon's cloud technology for storing data).

The Vox is coming out Oct. 28, a few weeks ahead of the Fire. But while the Fire was lauded as a worthy (albeit less powerful) competitor to the iPad when it was announced last month, the Vox hasn't made nearly as big a splash, despite boasting similar features. Clearly Amazon has a bigger reach for marketing, but I imagine the execs at Kobo are kicking themselves for not announcing their tablet first. 

If you're in the market for a web-enabled eReader, this could be a good alternative for people who don't want to tie themselves to the proprietary systems of Apple and Amazon. 

The Vox is currently available for preorder. 

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Kirk's picture
Admin
Kirk from Pingree Grove, IL is reading The Book Of The New Sun October 20, 2011 - 7:54pm

The reason this will not be as good as Fire is that Amazon was smart enough to fork Android and as a result, get away from all the trappings of developing an Android device.

BenevolentForce's picture
BenevolentForce from Los Angeles is reading 1Q84 October 21, 2011 - 12:18am

Agreed with Kirk.  Additionally, while Kobo has a decent stronghold on Canada and the UK, the North American market isn't having it.

Dwayne's picture
Dwayne from Lexington, Ky. is reading Strangers in the Land by Stant Litore. October 21, 2011 - 12:26pm

I could be mistaken, but doesn't the Kobo have a strong market share in every English speaking country excpet the U.S.?

Kasey's picture
Kasey from the morally and physically challenging plains of Texas is reading 12pt. Courier font October 21, 2011 - 3:53pm

just root a nook.

Charles's picture
Charles from Portland is reading What we talk about When we talk about Love October 23, 2011 - 7:32pm

i think it also has to do with selection, of which the kobo has very little. i have a kobo, and i have had to convert most of the books i bought for it from amazon or google.