By The folks at NOOK Media/Barnes & Noble have announced that apps on the e-reading platform would soon be able to tap into an in-app purchasing engine that will allow developers to easily offer downloadables and unlockables to users within apps and games. It’s a necessary development in a time where folks are leveraging a growing free-to-play model where monetization is driven through optional upgrades and unlockables instead of obtrusive ads or an upfront fee.
The service will be operated in conjunction with Fortumo, a leader in the in-app purchasing market. “We are thrilled to bring in-app purchasing to NOOK with Fortumo for our community of developers so they can foster a profitable relationship with their customers, while also providing our NOOK customers with a more in-depth app experience and an even wider selection of popular apps,” said Claudia Romanini, VP of NOOK Apps, NOOK Media, LLC.
“We look forward to adding thousands of more apps that feature in-app purchasing over the coming weeks and months to expand NOOK’s already wide array of digital content offerings.”
Nook says we can expect support to come in the coming weeks and months, and thousands of apps and games will be taking advantage of it. No timelines have been given for each individual Nook device just yet so we’ll just have to wait for further word from Barnes & Noble regarding the arrival. Read on for full press details.
NOOK® Announces In-App Purchasing Coming Soon
New Partnership with Fortumo Enables Developers to Monetize Premium Content
Customers Will Be Able to Make Purchases Within Apps on NOOK Devices Including the Critically Acclaimed NOOK® HD and NOOK® HD+
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–NOOK Media LLC, a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, today announced in-app purchasing is coming soon to NOOK through a partnership with industry-leading mobile payment provider Fortumo. App and game developers will be able to sell premium digital content in their products seamlessly and safely to millions of NOOK customers in the NOOK Store™ (www.nook.com). In the coming weeks and months, thousands of the most-requested games and apps featuring in-app purchasing will be available for customers to experience on NOOK’s award-winning line of tablets, including the critically acclaimed 7-inch NOOK HD and 9-inch NOOK HD+.
“We are thrilled to bring in-app purchasing to NOOK with Fortumo for our community of developers so they can foster a profitable relationship with their customers, while also providing our NOOK customers with a more in-depth app experience and an even wider selection of popular apps”
In-app purchasing provides developers a deeper engagement with millions of NOOK customers who enjoy using apps on their NOOK devices and browsing the fully curated NOOK Apps™ storefront (www.nook.com). Through its partnership with NOOK Developer™, Fortumo will provide developers with all the tools and resources they need to implement in-app purchasing, including a powerful dashboard with real-time insights on revenues and smart analytics on how customers are making purchases. For more information, developers can visit https://nookdeveloper.barnesandnoble.com/iap.html.For customers, in-app purchasing offers greater access to the most popular games and free apps on NOOK, and gives them the flexibility to buy extra levels, coins and other upgrades to make the app experience even better. And with the integration of Fortumo’s one-click checkout, once a customer has registered for in-app purchasing there’s no need to enter long credit card numbers before each payment. They simply click “Pay” and the purchase is completed in seconds.
“We are thrilled to bring in-app purchasing to NOOK with Fortumo for our community of developers so they can foster a profitable relationship with their customers, while also providing our NOOK customers with a more in-depth app experience and an even wider selection of popular apps,” said Claudia Romanini, VP of NOOK Apps, NOOK Media, LLC. “We look forward to adding thousands of more apps that feature in-app purchasing over the coming weeks and months to expand NOOK’s already wide array of digital content offerings.”
“In-app purchasing makes it possible for developers to ensure the customer only pays when they absolutely love the app. This has proven to be a compelling value proposition for customers and a very successful strategy for developers,” said Rain Rannu, Co-Founder and CEO of Fortumo. “We’re excited to work with NOOK and its vibrant developer community to leverage Fortumo’s industry-leading in-app payments solution to bring ‘freemium’ content to millions of NOOK customers.”
The NOOK Store features all of the most popular and bestselling top 100 app titles for tablets available anywhere, including the hottest games, as well as lifestyle, productivity, news, entertainment and reading apps. The NOOK Store also provides helpful age recommendations for parents and lets customers browse by subject area to find the perfect app for their child among the broadest and the most curated app collection of kids’ educational apps on any Android store. With the quality collection of NOOK Apps, customers can choose from a selection of only the best apps available, and enjoy a simple, organized way to discover and purchase apps – right alongside their favorite books, movies and TV shows, magazines, newsstand titles and more. Barnes & Noble’s award-winning line of tablets, including the 7-inch NOOK HD and 9-inch NOOK HD+, brings to life all this exciting content at incredibly low prices starting at $199.
About Barnes & Noble, Inc.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS) is a Fortune 500 company and the leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products. The company operates 677 Barnes & Noble bookstores in 50 states, and one of the Web’s largest e-commerce sites, BN.com (www.bn.com). Its NOOK Media LLC subsidiary is a leader in the emerging digital reading and digital education markets. The NOOK digital business offers award-winning NOOK® products and an expansive collection of digital reading and entertainment content through the NOOK Store™ (www.nook.com), while Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC operates 678 bookstores serving over 4.6 million students and faculty members at colleges and universities across the United States. Barnes & Noble is proud to be named a J.D. Power and Associates 2012 Customer Service Champion and is only one of 50 U.S. companies so named. Barnes & Noble.com is ranked the number one online retailer in customer satisfaction in the book, music and video category and a Top 10 online retailer overall in customer satisfaction according to ForeSee E-Retail Satisfaction Index (Spring Top 100 Edition).
General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company’s corporate website: www.barnesandnobleinc.com.
NOOK®, NOOK Store™, NOOK Video™, NOOK Video Apps™ are trademarks of Barnes & Noble, Inc. Other trademarks referenced in this release are the property of their respective owners.
Follow Barnes & Noble on Twitter (www.bn.com/twitter), Facebook (www.facebook.com/barnesandnoble) and YouTube (www.youtube.com/barnesandnoble).
About NOOK Media LLC
NOOK reading and entertainment products make it easy to read what you love, anywhere you like™ with a fun, easy-to-use and immersive digital reading experience. With NOOK, customers gain access to the expansive NOOK Store™ of more than 3 million digital books, plus periodicals, comics, apps, movies and TV shows, and the ability to enjoy content across a wide array of popular devices through free NOOK Reading Apps™ and NOOK Video apps, available at www.nook.com/freenookapps. NOOK owners receive Always Free NOOK Support in any of Barnes & Noble’s nearly 700 bookstores. Find NOOK devices in Barnes & Noble stores and online at www.nook.com, as well as leading retailers including Best Buy, Walmart, Target and many others. NOOK products are available in the United Kingdom through www.nook.co.uk and leading retailers.
For more information on NOOK, follow us on www.twitter.com/nookBN or www.twitter.com/nook_UK and www.facebook.com/nook.
You mean soon, not son.
Quentyn is gangster SON!
(The title has now been fixed but Quentyn is still a G)