This means you get a pretty comparable user experience on both mobile and PC. Much has been said on the internet on the epic Kobo-Kindle battle, but for Windows 10 users, there should be no comparison, as Kobo is available as an Universal Windows App. Kobo’s philosophy differs from that of Amazon, focusing more on the reading experience and freedom of readers, evident in their use of the more open, more common ePUB ebook format, instead of a proprietary format similar to Kindle.
Often touted as the last standing force against Amazon’s total domination in the ebook and ereader space, Japanese-owned Canada-based Kobo, though young, has quickly become one of the biggest ebook distributors on the planet. While you still cannot change font like on the non-Windows mobile apps, Kindle for Windows on desktop is now a solid reading experience, and here’s hoping Amazon see sense in the near future and just port it to the Store as a Universal app. With the newest update that I literally received while typing this article, the side bar now changes color depending on your current theme, eliminating my biggest complaint. The desktop program is surprising good for touch, especially in full-screen mode, responding well to taps and long presses, with big icons, and intuitive bottom menu bar. Kindle Cloud reader is always an option, and the desktop Kindle for Windows reader can be easily downloaded from Amazon’s website, and works much better, while ironically looking more like a Windows 10 app than its Modern counterpart. There is a caveat however: you are not limited to it, like on mobile Windows. The Modern Kindle app on Windows 10 PC is, sadly, not any better, with similarly dated UI and reading experience. At this point in time, there is no update.
The UI is also sorely in need of an update, and to add to the pain, there is no simple in-app book store, instead users are forced to the browsers for purchases. Not counting all the fancy differentiations of Amazon’s ebook reader on other platforms like X-ray, word lookup, Book Browser and so on, even basic functions like highlighting and collection are not present it’s as barebone as it gets, which will undoubtedly turn away heavy readers and advanced Kindle users.
Amazon’s first effort on Microsoft’s mobile OS was from Windows Phone 7, and the app has gone almost unchanged and un-updated since, besides an update for Windows 8 and a few bug fixes from years past. The Kindle app experience on Windows Phone has been, to say lightly, archaic.
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