Finally, Barnes & Noble returns to e-books
As it has for most of the past decade, Barnes & Noble is playing catchup to Amazon. Barnes, the nation's largest brick-and-mortar bookseller said Monday that it has launched its own digital-book store.
Plastic Logic's prototype e-book reader
(Credit: Plastic Logic Limited)The Barnes & Noble eBookstore will enable customers to read the service's digital books on an array of different platforms, including the iPhone, the iPod Touch and BlackBerry smartphones, the company said in a statement.
In addition, Barnes & Noble will be the exclusive digital-book supplier for the upcoming Plastic Logic eReader, which hopes one day to be a competitor of Amazon's Kindle, by far the nation's most popular e-book reader.
But anyone wishing to buy Barnes & Noble's e-books on Plastic Logic's device has got some waiting to do. The device is not scheduled to go on sale until next year.
Amazon has already completed an upgrade of the Kindle.
Still, Barnes & Noble has finally returned to the e-book game in a big way and there's plenty the chain can do to cross market the books from within its more than 700 brick-and-mortar locations.
Barnes & Noble first got into e-books after they sparked a flurry of excitement in 2000 when best-selling author Stephen King experimented with the format. E-books failed to catch with the public, however, largely because there wasn't an easy or useful way to access them. The Kindle helped to change that.
Barnes & Noble ended it's first attempt at selling digital books in September 2003.
Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. He is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. E-mail Greg, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sandoCNET. 
I suspect that the Kindle is the most "hyped" product of all time. I makes no sense at all to me.
While I'd like to see audited sales figures, too. I definitely don't think the Kindle is the "most-hyped" product of all time. Is there some hype there? Absolutely. But judging from the fan clubs, etc., there definitely is a "there" there.
The concept of reading books, newspapers, and internet content on a portable device is one that will prevail. As I have said before in previous posts, lets hope that it is not the Kindle that prevails.
The Kindle is a very locked down and proprietary device that controls and monetizes almost all content available for it. A free blog cost money if viewed on the Kindle. The recent book retraction scandal only highlights the problems with the Kindle.
I think Amazon made a bad move when they limited their ebook sales to just a kindle and not viwable from a computer.
1. I am a voracious reader leading to not enough place to store all the books I read in my home. I'm too lazy to go find a 2nd hand place to sell them too. And, I don't get a pick up from places I donate too enough that they wouldn't end up sitting around my house on the floor for months on end. Kindle solves this problem for me.
2. I buy more and read more now that I have any book I want on demand all the time. When I read a magazine and want to read a book they talk about I just log on to my kindle and find the sample and send it to my kindle immediately. I may not get to it for a month or two but it's there for me to remember that I was once interested in reading it.
3. I love the samples. Most books have samples so I don't have to purchase first - I've read many samples where I haven't gone on to buy the book.
4. I like the size, that I can change font size when needed, that the battery lasts forever, that it fits in my purse, and that if needed I can browse the internet at any time on a bigger screen.
5. I do not want to use my phone for reading - batter issues and small screen issues.
Now, that's why I love my kindle. I recommend it to anyone who loves to read. Is it expensive? yes, but I got around that by waiting a while and by always asking for gift certs to amazon.com on bdays and xmas. I was able to buy it w/out using much of my own cash and somehow that just made me feel so much better then shelling out $360 for an e-reader.
What don't I like? That I used to be able to give friends books that I enjoyed reading so they could read them. But, again, they would always give them back and I'd be stuck with the book again.
Anyway, I know people who don't get the kindle here in comments still probably won't get it but I thought I'd throw it out there how much I love it and that it is a neat little item to have if you love reading.
I love the fact that Barnes has come up with their own solution only for the fact that the more competition there is in the market the better it is for all of us who want digital solutions.
For me, probably the biggest drawback is that we would need to buy 2 readers and that is pricey...
Good luck people.
I have downloaded books from Google. The quality is terrible, rarely are all the pages there. No maps, plate or other images.
- by Tomofumi July 22, 2009 12:23 AM PDT
- i've tried different ways to read ebooks outdoors, and it is very uncomfortable to read texts in such a small screen (iphone, smartphones...), so now I'd settle down with a 10" netbook which is good enough.
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