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Barnes & Noble Officially Acknowledges Plans for iPad eReader Application

Thursday March 11, 2010 9:48 am PST by Eric Slivka

Barnes & Noble today officially acknowledged that it is developing an iPad-specific application that will provide access to content available in the company's eBookstore.

Designed specifically for the iPad, our new B&N eReader will give our customers access to more than one million eBooks, magazines and newspapers in the Barnes & Noble eBookstore, as well as the existing content in their Barnes & Noble digital library. (That includes eBooks and content customers have downloaded to their nook eBook reader.)

The news should not come as a tremendous surprise, as the company already offers a B&N eReader application for the iPhone and iPod touch. Unlike the existing iPhone application, however, Barnes & Noble's eBookstore will offer direct competition with Apple's iBookstore planned for the iPad.

Barnes & Noble's eBookstore allows users to purchase electronic book material and store it online in their "eBook Library". Users who wish to view content on-the-go can download it to their portable devices and view it using the company's eReader applications for a number of different platforms.
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Stately
25 months ago
Good stuff but won't it affect the nook?
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TheCheapGeek
25 months ago
This is very good news to hear, I hope apple plays nice with Amazon and B and N allowing them to have their apps on the phone. I wonder, since the iBooks app will use ePub format books, can you load your own ePub content into to iBook reader? I have my doubts but it would be nice extra feature. Anyone think apple will block these applications?
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Stately
25 months ago
Is it really?
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BrianMojo
25 months ago

Anyone think apple will block these applications?


I think that's very likely. Considering how hard-lined Apple has been about other browsers on the iPhone, I can't see them allowing competition to one of the core features (and potentially new revenue stream) of their new device.
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JGowan
25 months ago
Maybe I'm not understanding this, but it seems to me that unless you buy from Apple's iBookstore, you don't get the really awesome reading experience that Steve demo'd at the iPad Introduction with Ted Kennedy's book.

Will Barnes & Noble's books be read with their own proprietary eReading software or will it somehow work with Apple's? If it doesn't, I will NEVER buy books from anything else other than Apple's. Their whole presentation is better than any other software I've seen. "CLASSICS" was #1 until Apple made their stuff look like it was designed by amateurs.
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Consultant
25 months ago
That's great! iPad would have the best of Apple Amazon and B&N offerings.
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budselectjr
25 months ago
They will just block the ability to buy books directly on the iPad through the app.
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doug in albq
25 months ago
but nobody reads anymore....
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SteveSparks
25 months ago
Hope Apple allows the application. The question I have is if they don't is that antitrust, since their application is not built-in but an application...
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mrgreen4242
25 months ago
This is good news... Does the iPhone app support the lending feature of B&N's ebooks? Also, I think there was some talk about the Nook having a library lending feature so you could borrow ebooks from the library with it?
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