Kobo’s iPhone app for book lovers gets social

By Laura Khalil February 1, 2011

Kobo makes it possible for users to read its ebooks on any device anywhere in the world.

Reading Life adds in a social aspect to the ebook experience. Users can learn about their reading habits from the Reading Life dashboard, achieve reading milestones and targets, unlock dozens of achievement-based badges, and check in with characters and places they encounter in special enhanced ebooks. Readers can also choose to share this information, along with favorite quotes and passages with friends on their Facebook wall.

Since its December 2010 launch on the iPad, Kobo has awarded more than 750,000 Reading Life awards. Reading Life users read nearly double the pages of a non-Reading Life user. Now readers can engage with Kobo Reading Life not just on their iPad but on their iPhone.

“Kobo is the only service driving innovation in consumers’ eReading experience and we are excited to see our social eReading experience Reading Life get into so many consumers’ hands thanks to the iPhone’s record-breaking popularity,” said Mike Serbinis, Kobo CEO. “Consumers’ eReading experience is evolving into a live ecosystem of interactivity, not only between them and their friends, but also between them and their personal lifetime libraries. Reading and sharing content via the iPhone’s Reading Life application creates new avenues for exploration and innovation for readers, and is only available through Kobo.”

The Kobo store offers more than 2.2 million eBooks, from the NYT bestseller list, the hottest new releases, thrillers, romance and more– plus Kobo offers over a million free titles for people that want to try before they buy, and the Kobo Newsstand has a selection of the most popular newspapers and magazines with new editions downloaded with just a click.

Since launching in 2009, Kobo has been dedicated to an open cloud-based platform, enabling users to read on any device, and with open standards that give users freedom to build their lifetime libraries as they choose.

The new Kobo eReading iPhone app is now available for free download from www.kobo.com or the iTunes App Store.

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