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Sony e-reading customers in the UK will shift to the Kobo platform from June 16th.
The move will also take effect in Germany, Austria and Australia.
The Sony Reader Store in the four countries will close on 16th June, with customers and their libraries shifting to the Kobo platform and directed to use the Kobo e-book store to purchase e-books form then on.
The announcement comes two months after Sony e-reading customers in America and Canada shifted to the Kobo e-reading platform in March.
Takahito Aiki, c.e.o of Kobo, said: “We are delighted to be working with Sony to reach the most passionate readers in Europe and Australia, by bringing the Kobo world to Reader Store customers. Both companies share the goal of putting the most passionate booklovers at the centre of the reading experience.”
The free Kobo App for Android will be pre-loaded on select Sony smartphones and tablets in the coming weeks and Reader Store customers will receive an email from Kobo with instructions on how to easily transfer their library to a Kobo account. Until that time, Sony’s customers can continue to purchase e-books from Sony’s Reader Store, the company said.
The Sony e-reader store sparked the 20p e-book row in July 2012, when it started selling frontlist titles at 20p in a bid to encourage users to visit its store. Amazon then price-matched the promotion which led to tens of key titles selling for 20p. Sony only ended the promotion in March last year.