Monday, July 20, 2009

B and N goes head-to-head with Amazon on e-books

Things have sort of heated up on the e-book front. Barnes and Noble has just announced their foray into the business, up against (at the moment preeminent) Amazon. With luck, it will be consumers who win in the end.

From paidcontent.org: Barnes & Noble, in the midst of severe cost cutting and reorg, is getting serious about the e-book market, following Amazon’s lead: it is launching an e-books online store, that it says will work with iPhone and iPod touch, BlackBerrys, as well as most laptops and desktops. Also, more interestingly, it will be the exclusive “eBookstore provider” on the Plastic Logic’s eReader device.

Whether B&N would be able to unseat Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) Kindle, it is too early to say, but if anything, this may force Amazon to open up its store and formats more. And yes, a likely price war. Meanwhile, the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) factor still hovers on their minds, as any launch from the company could stop the two book giants cold. More...

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