Kobo is launching its Kobo Plus subscription in the US today. The subscription 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 plan will rival Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited plan, which costs $9.99 per month. Amazon also offers a Prime Reading subscription through its Prime subscription (which costs $119 per year) with a discounted catalog.
The Kobo Plus subscription has three levels. For $7.99 per month, you can 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 have to pay $9.99 per month. This gives you access to titles on all Kobo devices and the Kobo app.
Specifically, the company offers offline consumption of books through its iOS, Android, and desktop apps.
Kobo Plus was already available in countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, France, Canada, Australia and New Zealand with the US being the latest addition to that list.
In addition to the new subscription, the company, which is owned by Rauketen, also launched the Kobo Elipsa 2E e-reader with a 10.3-inch non-glare e-Ink touchscreen and a price tag of $399.99. The device has “weeks” of battery life, 32 GB of internal storage and support for audiobooks via Bluetooth earphones.