Barnes & Noble on Wednesday unleashed a new nook e-reader featuring a seven-inch color touchscreen that lets users turn pages with a simple tap or by swiping left or right. The company also unveiled a new developer program to grow the nook’s software capabilities.
The Android-based nookcolor is now available for pre-order with shipping on or about Nov. 19. According to Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch, the goal is to enable readers to enjoy the same immersive color offerings displayed in print versions of publications ranging from popular children’s’ titles to glossy magazines as well as newspapers with color photos and ads.
“Reading anything and everything in brilliant color is the killer app and squarely the product’s focus,” Lynch said. “At $249, nookcolor offers a tremendous value — particularly in comparison to the many other seven-inch tablets coming to market at twice the cost and often requiring expensive data plans.”
Harnessing Developers
Under Barnes & Noble’s nookdeveloper program, content providers and application developers will be able to create software to expand the capabilities of the nook e-reader. In exchange, developers will gain access to merchandising opportunities on Barnes & Noble’s web sites and more than 1,300 U.S. bookstores.
Moreover, content and app providers will not be limited to creating offerings related to e-reading. The nookcolor comes loaded with new capabilities such as a full web browser, Pandora Internet radio, Quickoffice reader for displaying Microsoft Office files, and free games.
Still, if Barnes & Noble and other e-reader makers really expect to develop a software ecosystem for nook devices, they will need to partner with established mobile platform players, observed Al Hilwa, director of application software development at IDC. Another “prerequisite for success in the long run” would be to partner “with an entrenched developer community such as Adobe or…