Kobo launched its Kobo Plus subscription tier in the U.S. today. The plan starts at $7.99 per month and gives users access to 1.3 million books (but not all titles) from Kobo’s library.
This new subscription will compete with Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited plan, which costs $9.99 per month. Amazon also offers a Prime Reading plan through its Prime subscription (which costs $119 per year) with a diminished catalog.
The Kobo Plus plan has three tiers. At $7.99 per month, you can either read unlimited books through Kobo Plus Read or listen to over 100,000 audiobooks through Kobo Plus Listen.
If you want access to both books and audiobooks, you will need to shell out $9.99 per month. This gives you access to titles across Kobo devices and the Kobo app.
Notably, the company lets you read or listen to books offline through its iOS, Android, and desktop apps.
Kobo Plus was already available in the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, France, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Along with the new subscription plan, the Rakuten-owned company also launched the Kobo Elipsa 2E e-reader. It features a 10.3-inch, glare-free, e-ink touchscreen and comes with a $399.99 price tag. The device has “weeks-long” battery life, 32GB of internal storage, and lets you listen to audiobooks via Bluetooth.
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Ivan Mehta