Barnes & Noble Sets Sail For U.K. With Planned October Launch For Nook [Updates]

Good news for book lovers and bad news for Amazon, as Barnes & Noble has decided to take on the U.K. market with a mid-October launch of the Nook eBook reader. After nearly 16 months since the launch in the U.S. the Nook Simple Touch and Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight eReaders will finally be available to the European market. And supporting it all would be a full-fledged digital bookstore with a U.K. address – NOOK.co.uk.

Pricing hasn’t been announced yet, but Barnes & Noble says that it will announce tie-ups with leading U.K. retailers. The partnerships will lead to easy availability of book titles and digital products through both physical and online channels. From this Autumn onwards, 2.5 million digital titles encompassing top-selling UK books, newspapers and magazines, and comics will be available on the NOOK Store.

In the press release, William J. Lynch, Chief Executive Officer at Barnes & Noble said –

“We’re confident our award winning technology, combined with our expansive content – including books, children’s books, magazines, apps, movies and more – will bring UK customers the option they’ve been waiting for.”

Barnes & Noble’s footprint across the Atlantic follows a financial injection of $300 million (nearly £191 million) from Microsoft in April. A Windows 8 eReader developed by Barnes & Noble and the Windows 8 compliance of the NOOK library is tied in with the cash infusion. But beyond that, the eBook market is ripening with potential sales hanging low from the trees. The competition among the eBook majors is only good news for consumers.

Source: Barnes & Noble

Originally published on MakeUseOf.com. Great site, check it out.