Barnes & Noble e-reader on the way?
There's no official word from Barnes & Noble, but according to media reports, the company will introduce its own e-reader Tuesday in New York City. For a sneak peek, take a look at some Gizmodo photos, which show a nifty device with a black and white e-ink screen like the Kindle has — and a multi-touch display like an iPhone underneath.
The New York Times reports that B&N has been talking to publishers about a new model that allows users to “lend” an e-book to a friend -- a feature that could help the bookseller market the device to members of its book clubs program. However, publishers are reluctant to approve the sharing feature.
The new device, if ready to compete with the Kindle and Sony Reader during the holiday shopping season, could make consumers dizzy. And things will get even more complicated whenever Apple unveils its own tablet/e-reader and Google creates its "cloud library."
Comments
It's laughable that so many pundits think people will spend 800 dollars+ to read books on an Apple tablet when netbooks go as low as $200-300. They missed their window - the price point for these readers is going south of 200 dollars in a hurry and the competition is simply beautiful. Too bad the color Plastic Logic reader is not coming out spring of 2010 as previously rumored. That would have made Amazon drop the price of the Kindle DX below 300.
That B&N lreader ooks like a nice piece of engineering, BTW.
Posted by: Richard | October 18, 2009 11:15 AM
I'll use the Apple Tablet for reading ebooks. Being able to also check email, go to Wikipedia to research topics of interest in the book, watch video's etc. makes it well worthwhile.
Posted by: Jeff | October 18, 2009 10:56 PM
I think this is an important move for B&N. and they could still come up with a winner. The eReader industry is just starting to taking off.
Posted by: Mike | October 19, 2009 5:24 AM
Apple has the apps and B&N has?
I'm sure any new Apple tablet will be able to load and sync your Iphone apps. That is HUGE.
They are already 100 steps ahead of the others before any release!
Posted by: CC | October 23, 2009 3:57 PM