Nook Release at Best Buy Official
Coming as no real surprise, Barnes & Noble’s Nook will be finding a home on the shelves of a Best Buy near you come April 18th. Priced at $259.99, the Nook will now be easily available to a larger consumer base, as many were having trouble finding units up to this point.
Whether or not these stand-alone e-readers will hold any traction with the iPad now released (and in Best Buy stores to boot) and promise of future Android tablets remains to be seen. I find it hard to believe customers would plop down close to $300 for a device so limited in scope, but Barnes & Noble is banking on Best Buy to help move their Android-based gadget into the hands of consumers.
Full press release:
Best Buy to sell NOOK by Barnes & Noble in stores and at bestbuy.com
beginning April 18Best Buy to feature BN eReader software
on PCs, netbooks, tablets and smartphonesNew York, NY – April 12, 2010 –Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, and Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY), America’s leading consumer electronics retailer, today announced an exclusive partnership to distribute Barnes & Noble’s popular NOOK eBook Reader and accessories, as well as free BN eReader software through Best Buy in the United States. NOOK is expected to arrive at Best Buy beginning April 18, just in time for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and graduation gift season.
Through the partnership, the award-winning NOOK eBook Reader and stylish accessories along with NOOK and Barnes & Noble eBook gift cards will be prominently featured in Best Buy’s 1,070 stores nationwide and online at www.bestbuy.com. As with Barnes & Noble stores, NOOK at Best Buy will be featured at a special in-store display where customers can see, try and buy a NOOK for $259.99 with the guidance of a trained Best Buy Blue Shirt.
In its growing eReader selection, Best Buy named Barnes & Noble a preferred eBookstore solution, offering more than one million eBooks, magazines and newspapers for download and enjoyment within seconds. Best Buy will feature Barnes & Noble’s free BN eReader on select PCs (laptops and desktops), netbooks, tablets and smartphones sold at Best Buy and supported by its Geek Squad Agents, giving customers access to shop Barnes & Noble’s world’s largest eBookstore (www.bn.com/ebooks) and enjoy their Barnes & Noble digital library anywhere they go.
“To date, we’ve limited NOOK distribution to Barnes & Noble retail and online stores and the customer response to our eBook Reader has exceeded our expectations. We have enormous respect for the Best Buy organization and its focus on providing technology solutions for millions of customers. We’re thrilled to bring NOOK, the BN eReader and our digital content expertise to Best Buy and its loyal consumer electronics-focused audience as a perfect complement to the book-loving Barnes & Noble customer,” said Kevin Frain, executive vice president of e-commerce, at Barnes & Noble.com. “Through this partnership, Best Buy customers will now have new and easy ways to access our expansive digital library on a variety of computing and mobile devices through BN eReader software and the Barnes & Noble eBookstore.”
“Barnes & Noble long ago established itself as a premiere bookseller and more recently as a genuine innovator in the digital content space. Our two companies share a clear vision for creating tools that give people the content they want, when and how they want it,” said Chris Homeister, senior vice president and general manager of the Home Entertainment Group at Best Buy. “We look forward to showcasing NOOK within our growing eBook Reader collection, and to helping customers discover the special appeal of this distinctive reading device and eBookstore solution.”
NOOK marries innovative technology and sleek minimalist design with access to Barnes & Noble’s digital store of over one million eBooks, newspapers and magazines. NOOK’s color touch screen for navigation along with a best-in-class E Ink® display offers an immersive, enjoyable e-reading experience. It offers both free 3G wireless and Wi-Fi access and is the first eBook Reader to offer digital lending for a wide selection of eBooks through Barnes & Noble’s breakthrough LendMe™ technology. In Barnes & Noble stores, all NOOK customers (regardless of where the device was purchased) can also enjoy fast and free Wi-Fi access to shop, exclusive More in Store content from leading authors, promotional offers and, coming soon, they’ll be able to browse the complete contents of many eBooks or periodicals in the vast Barnes & Noble catalog.
[via CrunchGear]