Toronto-based Kobo announced recently that their 7” colour screen e-reader the Vox has integrated Google Play into its repertoire, bringing a whopping 500,000 plus apps and features to the popular product. The addition makes the Vox a formidable tablet style device that also features everything we still love about the electronic ink screen look and capability of an e-reader.
Google Play is a recently minted multimedia content service from the tech giant that features countless books, movies, Android apps as well as a cloud-based media player. Play was created in March of this year through the union of the Android Market and Google Music and has thus far been extremely popular as a one stop shop with Android and Google TV users alike. In addition to the aforementioned, Vox users will also be privy to all Google Mobile services, which includes Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps for Android as well as all the other services we have come to know and love.
The Vox has been well received by both critics and users even before the announced upgrade, something that should be making competitors, mainly Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet a little bit nervous. We expect that new versions of those devices or software upgrades will be made in order to compete with the Vox, which clearly has separated itself from the pack due to this tactically brilliant move.
Current Vox users can breathe easy as Kobo has confirmed that all existing devices will be Google Play ready thanks to a software update that will occur the next time their device is connected to the internet. TQ wishes happy e-reading to all of you.