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e = BN: Barnes & Noble enters eReader fray

Al Gibes
July 27, 2009 - 4:14 pm
 

Bookseller Barnes and Noble (www.barnesandnoble.com) has entered the eReader universe, but with a notable difference: there is no B&N device dedicated to the service. Unlike their digital competitors Amazon.com and Sony, which offer the Kindle and eReader devices tied neatly to their company eBook stores, Barnes and Noble is offering software for your PC or Mac and applications for iPhones and BlackBerrys.

I downloaded the B&N eReader app to my iPhone this morning and found it very easy to navigate and get started reading. It comes loaded with six books, including “Dracula” by Bram Stoker; “Last of the Mohicans” by James Fenimore Cooper; “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott; the Merriam-Webster Dictionary; and two Jane Austen novels: “Pride and Prejudice” and “Sense and Sensibility.”

As in the Kindle store, customers can read the first chapter of any book for free before deciding to buy. Most new releases will sell for $9.99; many more will sell for less. A Barnes and Noble e-mail I received said its eBook store has more than 700,000 titles.

I plan to install the Mac version of the software on my home computer later today.

What I would love to see — I’m dreaming now — is some cooperation. That would make it possible to buy my books at any online eBook store and read them on my Kindle, or my iPhone, or my eReader software on my computer. I know there are ways to get eBooks into my Kindle via the tether to my computer, but I want easy. I want one-click shopping and one-click downloading. That's what separates the Kindle store from everyone else now, ease of use.

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