Barnes & Noble Announces Nook App for iPad
By Chris Weiss
Barnes & Noble is wisely hedging its e-reader bets. With the iPad getting its last-minute prepping for presale tomorrow, the company announced that it will offer a free Nook app for Apple’s tablet expected to drop around the iPad’s launch on April 3. The application will give iPad users access to the million + titles of books, newspapers and magazines available from Barnes & Noble’s eBookstore.
The iPad, which will finally arrive on April 3 after years of speculation and rumors, is expected to take a big bite out of the e-reader business, affecting popular e-readers like the Amazon Kindle and the much younger Nook. The iPad offers Apple’s muscular brand power and includes far more function than the average e-reader, making it a better choice for those looking for a do-it-all device for browsing, reading and multimedia.
For its part, Amazon has shown a number of signs of upgrading its Kindle, including purchasing a touchscreen company, announcing apps for Kindle and, most recently, searching for an engineer to work on Web browser enhancements. [via WSJ]
