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Kobo not great e-Book competition for iPad

Apple's ubiquitous iPad may cut into sales of the new Borders e-Book reader.

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The e-Book reader Kobo from Borders will be released in time for Father’s Day, but it may have a hard time making sales headway in the market due to the iPad’s dominating draw as an all-purpose media consumption device. Apple’s popular tablet has swept away markets and allows users to play games, go online and more as well as download and read books and magazines. Although Kobo will sell for about $100 less than other options, the price alone may not be enough to lure readers.

Richard Nash, founder of digital publishing start-up Cursor, doubts there are enough people out there who want to buy all these eBooks. “The demand is not going to be anything what it was like for iPod. There’s fairly limited demand for a device that does nothing other than let you read books.”

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