This past week marks the opening sales of Apple’s soon to be released iPad. Within the first six hours an estimate of 90,000 were pre-sold with the product hitting the market in three weeks for the WiFi only version. As I am a Apple Fangirl, I see no fault in their new product but for many there is a love/hate relationship.
Having spent the last year in the newspaper business, I am so excited by the potential that the new era of reader can mean for “print”. Perhaps, newspapers will not be a dying medium after all. But as brands decide what they want their involvement to be, I recommend taking a look at Barnes & Noble’s mindset.
Barnes & Noble launched their version of the reader, Nook, about 6 months ago and was paired to compete with the Kindle by Amazon. Instead of choosing to push the Nook and compete against the iPad, B&N has created an app that will facilitate as a reader for the iPad. They released a statement saying,
We’ve been getting lots of questions from customers, so we wanted to confirm that we will soon be adding a new B&N eReader for iPad – continuing to fulfill our promise of providing consumers any book, any time, any where.
Designed specifically for the iPad, our new B&N eReader will give our customers access to more than one million eBooks, magazines and newspapers in the Barnes & Noble eBookstore, as well as the existing content in their Barnes & Noble digital library. (That includes eBooks and content customers have downloaded to their nook™ eBook reader.)
To be released around the time of iPad’s expected availability, the new Barnes & Noble eReader will join our growing list of free eReader software for most computing and mobile devices including PC, Mac, iPhone, iPod touch and Blackberry, many of which will be updated shortly for an enhanced on-the-go reading experience.
Don’t have our eReader software for your desktop or mobile device? Learn more here to download the B&N eReader and enjoy reading on the go.
Regardless of competitors, regardless of ego or pride, B&N’s goal is “providing consumers any book, anytime, anywhere.” I really love that statement and mindset because in a nutshell they say they care more about us, the readers, than the bottom line. Even though I think that if they were not in the iPad it would hurt their bottom line more than being in it, there is a lot of pride that is sacrificed after having just released a competent reader of their own. It has me wonder what Amazon.com will do…
I can only hope that other print-centric brands will choose to do the same; put the egos aside and combine forces. We, your loyal fans, will only love you more for it.
