Technology News And Reviews

Less than a week after Amazon.com had two tremendous PR SNAFUs with regards to its Kindle e-book reader, but only six years after closing its first e-book store, Barnes & Noble has opened up a new one. The store comes complete with its own iPhone, iPod Touch, and BlackBerry apps. No dedicated device yet, but it’s coming: B&N will be the exclusive eBookstore provider on the forthcoming Plastic Logic eReader device. That device should be out in early 2010.

Users will also be able to read e-books on their PCs and Macs.

Lucky timing, eh? The PR fiasco over last week’s goofs has to have Amazon.com playing “nice,” but the Orwell “remote book deletion” really has consumers looking askance at the company.

B&N’s press release noted the store would have 700,000 books at launch (but 500K of them public domain books through Google, and thus free), $9.99 pricing for best-sellers and new releases, and an all-device strategy (OK, where’s Symbian, Palm webOS and Windows Mobile, then?).

William J. Lynch, President of BN.com said:

“Today marks the first phase of our digital strategy, which is rooted in the belief that readers should have access to the books in their digital library from any device, from anywhere, at any time. As America’s #1 bookstore and newsstand, our goal at Barnes & Noble is to build a service that revolves around the customer, enabling them to have access to hundreds of thousands of titles and read on their smartphone, PC, and many other existing and future devices. We want to make eBooks simple, accessible, affordable and convenient for everyone.”

Watch video of the Plastic Logic reader from the D7 conference in May: