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Barnes and Noble Carves a Nook in the Ereader Market Cris Ferguson Furman University, [email protected]

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Barnes and Noble Carves a Nook in the Ereader Market Cris Ferguson Furman University, Cferguson13@Murraystate.Edu Against the Grain Volume 22 | Issue 1 Article 40 February 2010 Technology Left Behind -- Barnes and Noble Carves a nook in the eReader Market Cris Ferguson Furman University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/atg Part of the Library and Information Science Commons Recommended Citation Ferguson, Cris (2010) "Technology Left Behind -- Barnes and Noble Carves a nook in the eReader Market," Against the Grain: Vol. 22: Iss. 1, Article 40. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7771/2380-176X.5870 This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. Technology Left Behind — Barnes and Noble Carves a nook in the eReader Market Column Editor: Cris Ferguson (Electronic Resources/Serials Librarian, James B. Duke Library, Furman University, 3300 Poinsett Highway, Greenville, SC 29613; Phone: 864-294-2713) <[email protected]> n October 20, 2009, Barnes & Noble Rik Fairlie recently conducted a head-to- on February 3, 2010 was estimated to arrive unveiled nook, its response to the head comparison of the three major eBook on February 12, 2010 with free shipping. OKindle and other eBook reading de- readers on the market: nook, Kindle and Barnes & Noble is taking great advan- vices. B&N’s foray into the eBook market, Sony Reader. Fairlie’s review, which can be tage of its retail locations to market nook, which includes the purchase of the eBookstore found in the January / February 2010 issue of offering live in-store demonstrations of the Fictionwise in March 2009, is part of the Money, names nook as its top pick. Reasons device. B&N superstores are all supposed company’s overall strategy to keep it competi- for this decision include the number of titles to have large nook displays, as well as 17 of tive in the book selling industry, both print and available, both paid and freely available, and B&N’s college bookstores. Having a dedi- electronic. While the device is often referred the navigation that is facilitated by the LCD cated retail presence gives Barnes & Noble to as “the Nook,” Barnes & Noble specifi- touchscreen. a distinct advantage over its competitors in cally uses a lowercase “n” when marketing As the review points out, Barnes & Noble the e-reader device market. Customers can the device and does not use the article “the” has a much larger library of eBooks available explore the device and put it through its paces to refer to nook. for purchase and access, over one million titles before purchasing, something that is difficult In terms of their basic functionalities, nook compared to Amazon’s almost 400,000. In to do with the Kindle unless you know some- and the Kindle are quite similar. Both have addition, nook can display the EPUB format, one who owns one. Unfortunately, nook is a six-inch E-Ink display and weigh less than enabling users to download titles from Google not actually available for sale in B&N stores. a pound. (nook weighs about an ounce more and from their public library. Kindle does not A B&N bookseller will, if you ask, order the than the Kindle.) They each have 2GB of support the EPUB format at this time, mean- device for you through the B&N Website and built-in memory, carrying up to 1500 eBooks. ing that far fewer free eBooks are accessible have it shipped to your house, but you cannot Both have built-in dictionaries and permit to Kindle users. leave the store with device in hand. users to bookmark pages and make notes. Another notable difference between the I visited my local B&N to check out nook Overall, nook is quite comparable in dimen- Kindle and nook is the capability to lend out for myself. At my B&N, the nook display sion and capabilites to the Kindle. eBook content. Through its LendMe program, featured prominently at the store’s customer However, there are notable differences Barnes & Noble allows nook owners to service desk. Two nooks, firmly anchored to that make nook stand out from the crowd lend eBook content to anyone with a nook, the counter via secure cables, were available to some degree. Instead of a keyboard, PC, Mac, iPhone, or other smartphone. The for testing, and big light-up signs proudly nook features a small, full-color, back-lit recipient need only have the B&N reader proclaimed nook’s arrival. Overall, I found touchscreen. Located just below the E-Ink installed on his or her device. the device to be remarkably similar to the display, the touchscreen, which was designed The Barnes & Noble eReader, which is Kindles my library has purchased. However, with navigation in mind, allows users to scroll freely available via the B&N Website, is a I must express my preference for nook. I was through books and magazines by title or by proprietary application that permits users to completely won over by the touchscreen and cover art. Essentially occupying the same read Barnes & Noble eBooks on devices such the navigational capabilities it offered. piece of real estate that the Kindle’s keyboard as the ones mentioned above. It should be noted that the battle for a does, nook’s touchscreen can also be used as It must be noted that the LendMe feature share of the eBook reader market is far from a virtual keyboard for searching purposes. has some pretty significant limitations. First, over. While this column was in progress, a One notable disadvantage to the touchscreen not all titles are available through the pro- new player entered the arena with the release is its drain on nook’s battery. Perhaps to help gram. Publishers may choose to opt out of of iPad. Unveiled on January 27, 2010, compensate for this, nook has a replaceable LendMe, making their content unavailable for Apple’s much anticipated tablet device is set battery, which the Kindle does not. lending. In addition, each eBook may only be to start shipping in April 2010. The iBook According to the Barnes & Noble Web- lent out for 14 days, during which time it is not application will enable users to browse the site, in addition to the 2GB of internal available to the lender. Lastly, an eBook may iBook store, which boasts content from five memory, nook offers expandable storage, only be lent out only once. If the recipient major publishers. Pricing will start at $499 accommodating a 16-GB microSD card. The isn’t able to read the book completely during for a 16 GB model. More than just an eB- device can also be used as an MP3 player the 14 day loan period, the eBook cannot be ook reader and MP3 player, the iPad could for music or audio books, holding up to 26 lent to them, or anyone else, again. certainly give both the Kindle and nook a hours of audio. run for their money. nook and all its features can be yours for There are certainly features that the Kindle the price of $259, which is, not coincidentally, Resources offers that nook does not. For example, the the exact price of the Kindle2. Pricing for the Kindle accepts Word files and includes a eBooks themselves are also quite simi- Baig, Edward C. “Wrinkles mar ar- rudimentary Web browser, neither of which lar. Both Amazon and Barnes & rival of Barnes & Noble’s Nook.” USA Today. is available on nook. Noble charge $9.99 for most (12/10/2009): Money section, 05b. Like the Kindle, nook uses AT&T bestsellers. Carnoy, David. “Is Barnes & Noble’s Nook 3G wireless. Barnes & Noble also nook officially began a Kindle Killer?” in Crave. CNET News. (Oc- makes free Wi-Fi available within shipping at the begin- tober 20, 2009). http://news.cnet.com/8301- its stores. The Wi-Fi connection ning of December, and 17938_105-10379125-1.html within B&N stores enables there were reports of Carr, David. “To Deliver, iPad Needs nook customers to “com- some shipping delays Media Deal.” New York Times. (January 31, pletely browse any eBook before the holidays. 2010). http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/01/ B&N is carrying while also Those problems appear business/media/01carr.html offering exclusive content to to have been rectified at Fairlie, Rik. “How the E-Readers Stack nook users.” (Milliot) this point. A nook ordered continued on page 85 Against the Grain / February 2010 <http://www.against-the-grain.com> 81 Future Tense from page 84 A consortial-level project team (or teams) could ameliorate this. With a number of libraries in need of project work, a team of this nature could be kept busy full-time, rotating its services among members. No individual library would bear the cost of retaining such a staff full-time, but all would be able to draw upon its capacity as needed. A similar approach could be used to amortize curation, preservation, and digitization expertise and capacity across the entire shared collection. Many libraries and consortia, of course, have already recognized and seized these opportunities: • The University of California’s Shared Cataloging Program and California Digital Library have distributed high- level skills across the entire UC system. Its Next Generation Technical Services initiative seeks to bring those operations to the UC network level. • Shared offsite storage facilities like could be sung, listened to, or performed, when Harvard/MIT’s, Colorado PASCAL Back Talk lady librarians couldn’t wear nice clothes or and a host of others have reduced costs from page 86 use make-up, when opinions could not be and collection redundancies.
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