The Live Indian Entertainment Blog

Jumping on the bandwagon with the rest of 'em on Friday was Borders. The company announced it will be opening an e-book store in June, and much as the earlier announced "Google Editions" e-book store, is aiming to be device-agnostic.

At the same time, Borders will in fact be selling the Kobo e-reader, which hasn't until this time been available in the U.S. It's taking pre-orders now, with the device shipping in June as well.

It's practically a foregone conclusion that with heavyweights Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble already in the e-book business, others have to join in to compete. Borders' decision is therefore not a surprise.

The Kobo e-reader's price seriously undercuts the Kindle significantly, at $150 vs. $260. On the other hand, the Kobo doesn't have cellular connectivity. In fact, the Kobo doesn’t even have wi-fi. Consumers purchase books via computer, then download them to the Kobo via USB.

Undoubtedly, that's going to be a big negative and impact sales. In fact, we find it hard recommend it based on the sub-par user experience alone. However, the bigger news is the e-book store.

Borders also said they would be providing apps for PC, Mac, BlackBerry, Android, iPhone, and iPad.

What would be ideal, of course, would be to read any of these e-books on any reader. After all, search for a book at any e-book store and you may not find it at one, have to look at another, and another, and more, to finally find the right store that has the title you want.