Sony Reader Store Closing Its Doors in US, Canada: Reader Accounts to be Transferred to Kobo Platform

Sony

Sony Reader Store Closing Its Doors in US, Canada: Reader Accounts to be Transferred to Kobo Platform

The Sony Reader Store for eBooks will begin closing its doors in the US and Canada beginning next month. Users of Sony’s Reader, Xperia tablet and smart phones however need not worry as all reader accounts and libraries will be transferred to Kobo’s platform.

New York: Xperia devices will come pre-installed with Kobo’s Android app bringing with it nearly 4 million eBooks, magazines and newspapers. Users of Sony Reader will have access to Kobo’s store from late March. Sony described the transfer as “simple and easy migration.” In fact customers will soon receive an email from Sony on how to move their library to a Kobo account.

All this will be later as the present status quo of Sony Reader is maintained. Sony also clarified that its present customers in Europe, Japan and Australia will be able to purchase eBooks after its Reader Store shuts down in North America next month. Those Sony Reader owners need not worry that they will be out of books as the Kobo system is rather good.

It remains to be seen however, if the cross platform syncing will really work. Those experienced with Kobo however confirm that it is similar to Amazon Kindle. This news has been confirmed by the company directly after it also revealed that it is selling off its Vaio and PC business to Japan Industrial Partners by the end of March.

Sony also announced that it will reform its TV business to make it a standalone entity by the end of June 2014. Sony saw a sales increase in Q3 of 2013 from its mobile arm. Still it faced a loss of 1.1 million in 2013. To make up for this, Sony will have to cut 5,000 jobs worldwide by March this year. But for those who bought a Vaio product, Sony promised to fulfill its after sales warranties. The separation of the TV arm should leave it to focus on high-end sets and 4Kscreens (of which Sony claims to have 75 per cent market share). It aims to return to profit within the next financial year.

The Vaio Tap 11 is Sony’s answer to the Microsoft Surface Pro 2. It’s less than 1 cm dimensions from front to back makes it what Sony reckons as the “world’s thinnest Windows 8 tablet.” It had a raving review as a highly responsive touchscreen with excellent image quality.