Kobo Arc Wins Red Dot Award: Product Design 2013

Kobo, a global leader in eReading, today announced that its Kobo Arc, a 7" Google-certified eReading tablet, has been awarded the red dot: Product Design 2013 award. As one of the 15 winners of this year's award, Kobo impressed a panel of 37 experts and was selected from more than 4,600 entries across 19 categories.

"To be recognized by the red dot organization for our commitment to design is thrilling," said Jean-Marc Dupuis, Managing Director, Kobo. "Kobo has proven yet again that it designs and develops industry-leading eReading devices that perfectly blend technology and aesthetics so that Readers can focus on the stories they love."

Prof. Dr. Peter Zec, initiator and CEO of the red dot, has pointed out that strong design competence and economic success nowadays go hand in hand: "The winners of the 'red dot award: product design 2013' are the protagonists of a highly developed design culture and design industry. These days it is becoming more and more difficult to distinguish between well-designed products. It is often only in the details that the special qualities become apparent. However, those product creations that pass the test before the critical eyes of the international red dot jury will not disappear into the crowd and will be able to fend off global competition."

Kobo Arc: Reads you like a book

Kobo Arc is a sleek 7-inch Android 4.0 multimedia tablet with full access to the Google Play store. It provides users with a new way to discover content - from eBooks, movies and TV shows to music, web pages and more. Kobo's exclusive interface, Tapestries, allows users to collect and curate content of interest in dynamic, visual Tapestries by "pinning" content to the home screen. The Kobo Arc's Discovery Ribbon leverages a cross-media recommendations engine to recommend related content based on the items pinned to Tapestries. The more users collect in their Tapestries, the more the Kobo Arc learns what they love and provides them with more engaging content.

The Google-certified, 7-inch tablet has a high-definition display that delivers crisp, sharp text, and with more than 16-million colors, brings photos, videos and games to life. With front-facing speakers enhanced by SRS TruMedia, a built-in microphone, and a front-facing camera, the Kobo Arc provides 10 hours of continuous reading or video play and two weeks on standby. The Kobo Arc runs on Android 4.0 and the company is currently working on its upgrade path to Android 4.1, Jelly Bean.