B&N, Microsoft team up on Nook, college businesses
Barnes & Noble Inc. and Microsoft Corp. say they are teaming up to create a new Barnes & Noble subsidiary that will house the digital and college businesses of the bookseller and include a Nook application for Windows 8.
Boldfaced emphasis added by me.
That’s the key to the investment right there.
Barnes & Noble doesn’t realize it yet, but Microsoft just stole their college textbook business and wiped out the Nook tablets.
Stop and think about it: If you’re using a Windows 8 tablet to view a college textbook via a free app, why do you need to buy any Nook hardware at all?
You don’t.
And I don’t see Barnes & Noble — or its NewCo — producing large-size tablets for textbooks.
If Barnes & Noble didn’t see that, they’re the biggest suckers in the world.
Don’t they know the Three Es of Microsoft? Embrace, Extend and Extinguish.
$300M to grab the textbook market from B&N is cheap. $300M to neutralize competing Nook hardware is cheap.
I’ve said that B&N should produce a Nook Touch that’s basically an eInk tablet with its Nook software as an app.
That’s basically what Microsoft just did to the NookColor and Nook Tablet: wipe them out as hardware and reduce them to an app that runs on Microsoft tablets.
Gee, do you think that Nook textbook app will run on iOS or Android?
This move puts Kobo in a very tight spot, at least in the American market.
And Apple should be paying attention now.
What software will Microsoft develop so those new interactive textbooks can be published? If Microsoft was smart — and there’s only a dim chance of this — it’d aim smack at the heart of iBooks Author and create the ePub Author we all need.
Mike Cane’s xBlog 
You do know that there is a nook “App” for every tablet and phone already?
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nook-by-barnes-noble/id373582546?mt=8
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/nook-for-android/379002287
So, because Windows 8 that has 0% marketshare in the tablet industry comes late to the tablet with an app that everyone else already has – thats suddenly “news”?
Yes, I do know. Do you know there’s a Nook Study app and this is all about textbooks for the college market?
I am wondering about the purpose of this article. You have been able to download the Nook “App” for Iphone / Ipad and Android devices for almost as long as the Nook device has been around.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/nook-for-android/379002287
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nook-by-barnes-noble/id373582546?mt=8
But as soon as Windows 8 that has no marketshare announces a nook app and actually pays a huge sum of money for it, its suddenly “news”??
See my other Reply. What do you expect me to do, sit here and wait for Comments to flow in and reply in real-time? Go to Twitter for that.
“Stop and think about it: If you’re using a Windows 8 tablet to view a college textbook via a free app, why do you need to buy any Nook hardware at all?”
Why would I when I already have an Ipad, like 50 million other people?
You make my own damn point. Think about THAT.
17% of the new company =/= controlling the fate of BN.
BN still holds all the cards, M$ just gave them a nice incentive to play ball.
Come back in three years and tell me how right I was.
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