That e-reader you have today may soon be morphing into a full-fledged tablet device. Bookseller Barnes & Noble has become the second e-reader maker reportedly planning to launch an iPad rival. The company plans to announce May 24 “a new eReader device,” B&N included in Form 8-K filed Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The news, first reported by Reuters, follows a software update to the Android-powered Nook Color, providing users with tablet-like features such as games, web browsing and email. Internet retailer Amazon may also join the tablet fray, lowering the price of its Kindle e-reader to $114 while also talking to iOS developers about porting applications to the device.
Barnes and Noble has struggled to adapt to a publishing environment witnessing increased adoption of e-books parallel with the decline of print book sales. B&N’s stock rose 14 percent Wednesday on the word the company may offer a tablet device. This renewed investor confidence follows an earlier 40 percent drop.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
10 responses to “Report: Barnes & Noble to Unveil iPad Rival May 24”
Ed,
While I enjoyed your post the title needs a little work. B&N are not really releasing an iPad rival are they? Clearly this in nothing more than an ereader with a bit more bang, how can you call this a rival?
More than likely a new category will form as the e-Ink-type readers add web/email functionality. Nook and Kindle will lead in this area, as they do now w/pure readers. They might keep some people away from small, low-end tablets but they won’t compete w/the iPad.
Please correct this to Kindle rival…
it is likely Barnes and Noble that is calling this an ‘ipad’ rival. Mainly cause everyone calls their thing an ‘ipad rival’.
We’ll see when it comes out if it has the chance to perhaps live up to that name.
I don’t think B&N is calling this an iPad rival. Everything points to an update of their eInk reader, which is long overdue.