Introducing the Barnes & Noble E-Reader

Monday, July 20, 2009


Right now. At this very moment an announcement is being made by Barnes & Noble, that is introducing the Barnes & Noble E-Reader.

The B&N E-Reader is a FREE application that you can download to your computer(PC or MAC), your Blackberry, or your iPhone. That will allow you to read E-Books that you have purchased directly from our website.




Let's talk about how easy this is going to be for you, the book lover. Earlier this month, B&N introduced the iPhone Ap that leads you directly to the B&N website. You can snap a picture with your iPhone and with the B&N Ap, you can pull the book up, locate it at a store in your area, purchase it from the website, or as of now, download it directly to your phone and be reading it within seconds. All for the cost of the book. Typically $9.99 or cheaper. E-Books can be downloaded directly to your phone at anytime. Anywhere. And just think, if you have the Barnes & Noble Membership Card, your cost will even be cheaper than if you were to purchase it from another website.



But just so we are clear. You do NOT have to purchase the $299 Kindle to get the exact same features that you get for FREE from B&N. I do not have an iPhone or a Blackberry, but in checking out www.ereader.com (A B&N Company), they have the software for other companies, so I suspect that in the very near future other phones will be added to the list. When downloading software directly from bn.com it even says that more phones will be added in the near future.


I got off track there, I am sorry, but this is an exciting time for me both as a bookseller and a book lover! Let me get back to some of the features, I did have the opportunity, this morning, to play with the E-Reader Application on an iPhone. Not only did it take only a few minutes to download the E-Reader, but also within seconds Sense & Sensibility was downloaded for free. I got to play with the features, which include font sizes, automatic scrolling, highlighting, taking notes, and the ability to search on Google or Wikipedia for something listed in the text of the book. I know there were other cool features that I am missing, but what can I say. It was 7:00am.


This is huge. HUGE for my company. For months now, there has been speculation at what B&N would do to compete with the Kindle and the Sony Reader. In participating in many book type message boards, there have been many people express their reluctance at venturing to the E-Book world because of the initial cost of the E-Reader. Let me say it again. The B&N E-Reader is FREE.... FREE!!!

While I am a little bummed that an application is not immediately available for my Palm Centro, I am not going to run out and by an iPhone or a Blackberry in order to read books. I love my Centro (and have my eye on the Palm Pre) & it does everything I need and more. I fully expect B&N to add other Smartphones to their list of Supported Devices in the very near future. Until then, I will just watch TV on my phone. God Bless SlingPlayer.
Buffywnabe said...

I downloaded it. Since we can have our phones on the floor for about a week to "demonstrate" to the customers. ;-) I don't imagine that I'll ever make much use of this as I want my book there with me. But I am thinking of downloading Twilight at least so that I always have that book with me. Of course I'd want the whole series. Wish I could download Midnight Sun from Stephenie Meyer's website too.

Wingnut said...

I just got my first blackberry (Storm) 2 weeks ago. Last week, I downloaded the B&N app and bought "The White Queen". I LOVE IT!

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