Ann Arbor-based retail chain Borders Group Inc.'s electronic books store is now live, and the company hopes to gain 17 percent of the market by July 2011, officials said this morning.

Borders launched its eBook store, which was developed by Toronto-based Kobo Inc., a division of Indigo Books & Music. The eBook store allows consumers to buy digital books from Borders for use on any mobile device that has downloaded the application created for Borders by Kobo.

More than 1.5 million books are available through the eBook store.

Borders recently introduced its app for Apple's iPhone, iPod and iPad; phones that use Google's Android operating system; and Research In Motion's BlackBerry phones.

Borders is selling the Kobo eReader, one of several devices that can now access books from Borders' new eBook store.

The eBook store's introduction follows Borders' decision to start selling the Kobo eReader device for $149.

Borders said this morning that the Kobo eReader, which is available at Borders.com and at some stores, had "surpassed sales expectations."

Soon after that decision, rivals Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com lowered the prices for their e-readers in a trend that industry experts believe will continue to drive down the price point of devices throughout the industry.

"The race to emerge as a retail leader within the digital category is just starting,” said Mike Edwards, CEO of Borders Inc., the main subsidiary of Borders Group, in a press release. “During the past several months, we’ve been carefully crafting a digital strategy, one that has great content and a device-neutral philosophy backed by the Borders brand as its cornerstones. We believe we are very well positioned to come out strong and to ultimately claim about a 17 percent eBook market share by this time next year.”

Borders employs about 650 workers at its Ann Arbor headquarters and about 25,000 at more than 500 super stores and more than 100 smaller stores throughout the nation.

Contact AnnArbor.com's Nathan Bomey at (734) 623-2587 or nathanbomey@annarbor.com. You can also follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's newsletters.