Case Studies
Kobo: Macadamian offers mobile UI engineering expertise for Kobo eReader
Services: Embedded software development
Domains: Mobility
Technologies: Embedded Linux, C++, Qt
The Kobo eReader is a modern e-book reader first announced at the CTIA Wireless conference in 2010. Kobo’s goal was to release an e-book reader with a highly intuitive user experience that would stand out from its competitors.
Kobo worked with Macadamian for months prior to the announcement. Macadamian had augmented Kobo’s engineering division with a team of embedded/mobile software developers to help them realize their vision faster.
The Kobo and Macadamian teams worked together as one team, following a collaborative agile process. Macadamian’s software developers, specialized in embedded Linux development, focused on engineering the mobile product’s user interface using the Qt framework.
With Macadamian’s support, Kobo got to market with its first release just 6 weeks after publicly announcing the product. The Kobo eReader has now spread internationally, selling at major book retailers such as Borders in the United States and Indigo/Chapters in Canada.
Customer Profile: Kobo is a global eReading service backed by majority shareholder Indigo Books & Music, Borders Group, REDgroup Retail, and Cheung Kong Holdings. Kobo believes consumers should be able to read any book on any device. With a catalog of over two million eBooks, and an open platform, Kobo enables retailers, device manufacturers and mobile operators to bring the joy of eReading to customers everywhere.
