IDG Indigo Books and Music Inc

TORONTO, May 12 /CNW/ -- TORONTO, May 12 /CNW/ - Indigo Books and Music Inc. is pleased to announce updates to Kobo Inc.'s industry-leading eReading apps for iOS devices. Indigo's majority owned Kobo Inc. is a global leader in eReading with over 3.5 million readers worldwide and Kobo's iOS enhancements extend Kobo's social eReading experience, Reading Life to Twitter, enabling users to share quotes, passages, notes, book covers, and awards easily to their Twitter feed. Indigo, Canada's largest book, gift and specialty toy retailer is dedicated to inspiring reading regardless of the format in which booklovers choose to read. "The launch of Kobo's Reading Life marked the first comprehensive social eReading experience enabling booklovers to celebrate and share their passion for books and reading," notes Heather Reisman, Indigo Books & Music Inc. CEO and Kobo Inc. Chair. "Through Reading Life, Kobo has seen more than a 50% increase in the time users spend reading digitally and today's added features for iPad and iPhone users now help them to easily share their reading experience with their networks." Nearly all of Kobo's iPad and iPhone users have started using Reading Life and to date, nearly 5 million awards have been collected by loyal readers everywhere. Kobo plans to roll out new innovative features for Reading Life, and bring the program to new partners, platforms, and languages throughout 2011. Kobo users have achieved impressive milestones in the short time of Reading Life's existence, including the Juggernaut award - awarded to thousands of users who have read over 10,000 pages! in a few short months.  Users of Reading Life are social butterflies - 98% of Kobo app users access Reading Life on a regular basis, and over 90% of users who have connected Reading Life to facebook share regularly. "Reading Life is helping us bring the culture of books - beyond just buying and reading - to eBooks.  Our customers have responded with amazing engagement, but also a substantial increase in time spent reading.  Bringing Twitter to Reading Life will enable our customers to reach out to friends in real-time, enabling new opportunities for conversation and discovery," said Michael Serbinis. Enhancements to Kobo's Reading Life for iOS allows users to: -- Easily share the Reading Life Mosaic via Twitter with followers -- Share your latest read with followers -- Share your favorite quotes and passages, notes and thoughts with followers -- Easily Share Awards - just for spending time reading -- View awards friends have earned by tapping on the shared award from the Activity feed on iPhone or iPad -- Chat with friends about great new reads -- Purchase or start reading books recommended by friends simply by tapping on the shared book cover from the Activity feed -- Organize your growing library by creating and personalizing shelves of books, newspapers, magazines and documents - to your taste Kobo's store offers a selection of over 2.3 million eBooks, with titles ranging from the Heather's Picks, the hottest new releases, thrillers, romance and more.  Plus, Kobo also offers access to the most popular newspapers and magazines.  Since its launch 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 Kobo eReading app for iPhone, iPad, and iTouch  can be downloaded for free from www.kobo.com or the iTunes App Store. Customers who currently have Kobo on their iPad or iPhone can download the update directly on their device. Forward-Looking Statements Statements contained in this news release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements which involve risk and uncertainties that could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. Among the key factors that could cause such differences are: general economic, market or business conditions in Canada; competitive actions by other companies; changes in laws or regulations; and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. About Indigo Books & Music Inc. Indigo is a publicly traded Canadian company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (IDG) and the majority shareholder of  the global eReading service Kobo, Inc. As the largest book, gift and specialty toy retailer in Canada, Indigo operates in all provinces under different banners including Indigo Books & Music; Indigo Books, Gifts, Kids; IndigoSpirit, Chapters, The World's Biggest Bookstore, and Coles. The online division, http://www.chapters.indigo.ca, features books, eBooks, toys, gifts and, and hosts the award winning Indigo Online Community. About Kobo, Inc.  Kobo, is a global eReading service with more than 2.3 million eBooks, magazines and newspapers - one of the largest eReading catalogues in the world. Kobo believes consumers should have the freedom to read any book on any device and has attracted millions of readers from over 100 countries across the globe.   Kobo has top ranked eReading applications for iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Windows, MacOS and is the eReading application of choice for leading tablet OEMs.  The Kobo Wireless eReader is also available at leading retailers including Indigo, Future Shop, Walmart, Best Buy, Borders, WHSmith, Angus & Robertson's, and Whitcoull's. Kobo's recently announced, innovative Reading Life, marked the launch of an industry first comprehensive social eReading experience  -  Kobo users can earn awards simply for time spent reading. Kobo is backed by majority shareholder Indigo Books & Music Inc, Cheung Kong Holdings, and institutional investors.   For more information, visit www.kobo.com. To view this news release in HTML formatting, please use the following URL: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2011/12/c4083.html p bMedia Contact: /bbr/ Janet Eger, Director, Public Relations, Indigo Books & Music Inc., 416.342.8561; a href="mailto:jeger@indigo.ca"jeger@indigo.ca/a /p

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