Now this is an interesting piece of news from our buddies at TechCrunch:
We believe there is a good chance there will be a Barnes & Noble bookstore built into the Apple Tablet, either as one of the showcase apps which launches with the device, powering a new book section in iTunes, or integrated directly into the Tablet’s e-reader. The two companies are thought to be working closely together, increasing the likelihood that Barnes & Noble will be part of the announcement on Wednesday. While Apple can run around cutting deals with the larger publishers, a built-in Barnes & Noble bookstore could include up to a million titles in one fell swoop, just like on B&N’s own Nook reader
. Barnes & Noble already offers an eReader app for the iPhone (iTunes link
I definitely think there will be some rivalry between the Amazon (AMZN) Kindle and Apple’s Tablet. The Kindle does have a few advantages like its $259 price tag
And it would be smart of Barnes & Noble to jump on board. The Nook is cool but it doesn’t have the buzz of the Kindle and will be overshadowed by the Tablet. Not to mention that there are an awful lot of e-book readers, or e-book capable devices, coming in to crowd the market.
Amazon does make a Kindle app for the iPhone, and they should do the same for the Tablet. I’m skill a bit skeptical about the Tablet’s success, but a Kindle app’s not going to affect that. Therefore, Amazon should just jump on board, because the Tablet just might take off. They could even throw in some free e-books to those who order the Apple Tablet from Amazon.com.
We’re living in a funny world. I’d rate Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), and Amazon.com (AMZN) as the four big tech giants of this age. They’re four completely different companies that have found bizarre ways to compete with each other in certain business areas, and cooperate in others.
It’s the foggiest fog of war in business today.
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…this has to be one of the dumber posts I’ve read this am…I’ll just quote my response to a post on another blog:
“…”the one most everyone can agree on is that it will be used as a full color electronic reader which will put Amazon’s Kindle to shame”????????…if ignorance is bliss then Schonfeld must be living in heaven!…ANY tablet that has a COLOR screen can NOT be used as an e-reader!…at least if it uses current technology…ALL color screens require BACKLIGHTING…backlighting makes it virtually impossible to read for more than a couple of minutes at a time without developing eyestrain…to get a general idea of the effect, try staring at a bare lightbulb for a few seconds…also, color and backlighting need a lot of energy which means fequent recharging…the wonderful thing about e-ink is that it requires NO backlighting and therefore reads like a regular book…it’s actually SUPERIOR to a regular book in that it can be read in intense lighting situations with no difficulty…it also requires LITTLE energy so a single charge can last for WEEKS…I can only wish that in the future, reporters would do just a LITTLE RESEARCH before exposing their ignorance to the world…”