Barnes & Noble and Samsung Uniting To Enhance The Nook With New Co-Branded Tablet
By Megan Zielinski, contributing writer
Barnes & Noble, leading retailer of books, digital media, and educational content, in partnership with Samsung, global leader in technologies, will be combining features of Samsung Galaxy Tablet 4 and the NOOK—creating an enhanced Nook tablet from the best of both devices.
The new Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook will integrate the functions of the Nook onto the 7 inch design of the Samsung Galaxy Tablet 4— known for its lightweight build, sharp display, multi-user mode, 1.2 GHz quad-core processor and 1.5 GB of memory.
Since introduced in 2009, the Barnes & Noble Nook offers a selection of up to 3 million titles of digital reads and media including, newly released books, bestsellers, comics, magazines, periodicals, movies, and TV shows. Content is typically priced at $9.99 and under. Every day, the Nook Daily Find displays “a great book for a great deal,” with savings up to 90 percent off of a listing price of $10 dollars. Free Wi-Fi is available for instant eBook downloads and fast page flipping, and reading can take place without the interruption of ads that appear in other competing eReaders. Users have access to a large selection of eBooks from their local library for convenient borrowing. The Nook delivers personalized recommendations based off of reading history, and the Nook holds an impressive battery life of 2 months.
Pairing up with Samsung will allow for Barnes & Noble to save significantly on costs of producing the tablets—eliminating the extra expenses that goes along with its development if the company was to undertake the task solely. This will enable Barnes & Noble to focus on improving the digital experience while Samsung covers the infrastructure of the new Nook. “Samsung is dedicated to providing consumers with choices that best fit their lifestyle. So, we are excited to be taking this next step with Barnes & Noble to offer Galaxy Tab 4 devices that are tailored to the needs of their customers and enhance the NOOK reading experience.” said Tim Baxter, President of Samsung Electronics America.
By the beginning of August, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook will be included in the Nook collection, alongside the Nook Glowlight and other Nook eReaders sold at Barnes & Noble’s nearly 700 bookstores nationwide and www.barnesandnoble.com—a leader of ecommerce sites.