Barnes & Noble has a new ally in its war with Amazon for the tablet market. The company said last year it was re-evaluating its place in the tablet market and many thought they might just get out of the tablet business all together. Instead, the company is partnering with Samsung to make the Nook 4 The new tablet will be called the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook.
The tablets will use Samsung hardware paired with the Barnes & Noble collection of more than three million books, magazines and newspaper. Barnes & Noble has struggled along with other bookstores with brick and mortar locations as book-buying habits have shifted to the eBook market, which has been dominated by Amazon. The Amazon Kindle Fire tablet has proved very popular.
The company says it will continue to sell and support the $99 NOOK GlowLight eReader. The move should save the company a lot of money. Developing, manufacturing and supporting hardware like a table is an expensive proposition. Barnes and Noble can instead focus on delivering content to its customers.
The 7″ version of the tablet should be available in August and Barnes & Noble says they will be prominently displayed beside the Nook eReaders at Barnes & Noble retail locations and, of course, available on their website. No word yet on what features users can expect on the tablet or how much it will cost.
~ Cynthia