Kobo Announces An Aggressive Partnership Strategy for 2011

Given the situation with their partner Borders, they damned well better have an aggressive partnership strategy for 2011. PW: "Kobo ... plans to vastly expand its footprint in the e-book space. Kobo has made partnerships with companies like Samsung and RIM to place Kobo e-reading software on their respective tablet devices, the Galaxy Tab and the upcoming Blackberry playbook. At CES, which begins today, Kobo is also focusing on OEM partners who will sell devices with Kobo software built in. Freescale, a leading chip maker for e-readers and tablets, has included Kobo software in its new tablet reference design (which OEM partners use to conceive of what devices with Freescale chips might do), the i.MX53 SABRE, which the company is showing off at CES."

BlackBerry PlayBook vs. Apple iPad: Specs Compared

Nick Mokey, Digital Trends: "RIM can’t hold a candle to Apple’s app collection, but with the PlayBook, it has successfully managed to outspec Apple in a number of key categories. The PlayBook’s small size makes it eminently more portable than the iPad, its high-quality cameras will appeal to business users who want to Skype with family and coworkers from across the globe, and a dual-core processor will even tickle the fancy of performance geeks – not something RIM is used to doing. The PlayBook will also appeal to BlackBerry’s core constituency with the same tight enterprise support as its phones, BlackBerry tethering, and smartphone integration that will allow owners of both devices to switch back and forth between both devices seamlessly – starting an e-mail on a Bold 9700, for instance, then finishing it on the PlayBook."

WattPad App For PlayBook

eBookNewser: "Yesterday BlackBerry unveiled its plans for a new tablet computer called the PlayBook and since then it seems that all of the eReader app companies are getting into the action. Kobo released a social eReading app for the new tablet, which is expected out in early 2011. Amazon announced their Kindle app for the tablet. And now eBook community site WattPad has their app ready to go."

Kindle App Coming for BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet

Crave - CNET: "Amazon already has a Kindle app for BlackBerry, so it's not surprising that it announced that it will release an app for BlackBerry's upcoming PlayBook tablet, which has a 7-inch touch screen and will be released in early 2011. In case you hadn't noticed already, part of Amazon's strategy for selling e-books and expanding the Kindle platform is to make sure that its Kindle app is available for a variety of mobile devices, the more the better."

With BlackBerry PlayBook, R.I.M. Returns to Corporate User Roots

NYTimes.com: "Research In Motion, the Canadian maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, introduced its first tablet computer on Monday at a developers’ conference in San Francisco. But in a return to its roots, the company said that the new device, the BlackBerry PlayBook, would be aimed mainly at business users. ... "