

Microsoft Reduces Nook To An App For $300M - mikecane
http://mikecanex.wordpress.com/2012/04/30/microsoft-reduces-nook-to-an-app-for-300m/

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nl
This is totally backwards.

B&N doesn't make money off the hardware, they make it off the books.

Why do you think Amazon gives away the Kindle on iOS and Android?

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rrreese
This story makes no sense.

Firstly there is a nook app already available on iOS
([http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nook-by-barnes-
noble/id373582...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nook-by-barnes-
noble/id373582546?mt=8) ) Why isn't this version a disaster while a Windows 8
version is.

Secondly competitor Amazon has Kindle apps for iOS, Android, Windows, Mac,
even Windows Phone 7. Clearly Amazon thinks that they are in the book selling
business, not the e-reader business. Surely Barnes and Noble thinks the same?

Thirdly as far as I can tell, B&N is in trouble. They are facing Amazon, and
are not winning. A strategic partnership with Microsoft may help save them. Or
it may not. But either way it seems like a move that has more upsides then
down sides.

I'm not really sure who this guy is, or why he is so very very angry, this
news doesn't seem like much of a disaster for anyone.

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vetler
_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?_

Well, Amazon provides a Kindle app, but they still sell boatloads of Kindles.
You might not need a Nook if you've got a Windows 8 tablet, unless you want a
device more suited for reading text, but chances are that you don't actually
_have_ a Windows 8 tablet.

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ctdonath
My iPad runs iBooks, Kindle, Nook, Nook Kids, Stanza, Kobo, Bookshelf,
[Google] Play Books, Overdrive, and XComics. Save for iBooks, none of their
retailers would get any money from me if they were locked to their associated
hardware (and of those not having associated hardware, they exist precisely
because they don't).

If B&N retains the content & server rights, they just landed a major coup for
just $300M. Their hardware was just a way to distribute their software.

There's this funny thing about paper books: not only does each paper book
contain full content in a convenient package, it includes the reader hardware.
Digital books are pure content in need of a reader; the Nook (and Kindle and
...) was just a way to get reader hardware to readers so they could read the
content; as general-purpose tablets proliferate, retailer-branded special-
purpose reader-tablets will fade.

But yes, B&N beware of "Embrace, Extend & Extinguish". Make sure M$ stays in
the OS business, not content.

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rbanffy
I run my Nook Color with Cyanogen and the Nook app for Android. I think I may
miss in-store promos or things like that, but, in turn, my browser experience
is much better. And it also runs the Kindle software.

There already is Nook software for iOS and Android (and, most likely, Windows
and OSX). I don't see how the heir to WP7's market share can even move the
needle here.

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darkxanthos
There's been a nook app for iOS for quite a while. What's different here?

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dan_b
What happened to the B&N vs MS patent suit?

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loverobots
I am trying to see what MS will get for this.

Content for it's devices (xBox, tablets, phone)? A settlement with B&N
agreeing to pay something, even a penny, so the anti-Android patents aren't
questioned?

Either way, it must great to pay $300 Million for 18% of something and not
feel it.

