Digital Media Buzz > Barnes & Noble Delves into Downloadable Digital Media

Barnes & Noble Delves into Downloadable Digital Media

 

By Zakiya Lathan

We play games on them during boring meetings. We listen to music on them during uncomfortable elevator rides. We scan news headlines during our daily commutes. Our mobile devices: they are our constant companions, our lifelines, our ever-present adult pacifiers. And increasingly, they are our books.

Barnes & Noble, Inc., the world’s largest bookseller, announced in early March that it had acquired Fictionwise, Inc., the most experienced eBookseller in the world, known for its eReader ebook reading application, one of the first widely adopted mobile applications for reading electronic text. The acquisition of Fictionwise, Inc. was described by Barnes & Noble representatives as “part of its overall digital strategy.” Less than two months later, Barnes & Noble revealed another component of that strategy. The company announced that it will be using Fictionwise’s digital distributor, OverDrive, Inc., to launch its Audiobook MP3 Store.

While Barnes & Noble may be looking beyond its brick-and-mortar business model as a way of offering customers more choices, they are also positioning themselves to fully take advantage of e-commerce opportunities that are yet untapped. 

One such opportunity could be in academic publishing. E-books have taken off in the world of popular literature. Amazon.com Inc. is hoping that the same will be true for textbooks. A small group of textbook publishers have joined Amazon to test the market for e-books on college campuses. Students at Princeton, Arizona State and Reed will be among the first to test e-textbooks on Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader. The e-textbooks, which can be produced less expensively than printed versions, have the potential to lighten student debt loads as well as book bags. 

In the world of e-publishing another untapped e-commerce opportunity is being explored with digital newspapers. Laptops and cellphone browsers are no longer the only way for consumers to read digital versions of their favorite periodical while mobile. 

Several well known newspapers are available as Kindle subscriptions including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA TODAY, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Seattle Times and The Denver Post, to name a few. New editions of subscribed publications are delivered wirelessly to the Kindle device. 

When the new, larger-screened Kindle DX ships to consumers this summer, some newspapers will offer digital subscription packages that will include Amazon’s e-reader. The Boston Globe, New York Times and The Washington Post have all entered into such arrangements with Amazon. 

New advances in digital display technology make reading for long periods of time on mobile screens less straining on the eyes thanks to E Ink Corp.’s electronic paper-like display that employs its proprietary electrophoretic technology. Two big names in e-reading devices: Amazon’s Kindle and the Sony Reader boast this technology. In addition to reducing eye strain, E Ink also conserves power and forgoes the use of a backlight. Unlike traditional digital displays, E Ink can be easily read in sunlight. 

British-based Interead is planning to launch an E Ink-powered e-reader in June, broadening consumer choices for digital reading devices. Like its predecessor, Amazon, Interead plans to pair its e-reader with an online e-book store that will provide content for their “Cool-er E-book” reader devices. 

E-books come in various formats. The company plans to sell their e-books in the commonly used EPUB and Adobe PDF formats, meaning that devices other than their own may be used to read e-books purchased at their online store–though a discount is offered to those that own Interead’s reader. 

Selling e-books that can be used on multiple platforms is what Fictionwise has long been known for. Barnes & Noble has, so far, maintained the same operating structure that was in place before it acquired the company. Unlike Amazon and Interead, Barnes & Noble’s Fictionwise does not offer its own e-reader device. Instead, the company sells e-books and produces software that adds e-reader functionality to mobile devices that consumers already own. Currently, Fictionwise offers e-reader software for several smartphones and PDAs as well as for Windows and Macintosh operating systems. 

There are rumors, however, according to The Street.com, that Sprint Nextel Corp. and Barnes & Noble are in talks to produce an e-reader to compete with Amazon’s Kindle. According to The Street.com article, this information was leaked by a wireless industry insider.  

Not many people, initially, fully understood how the introduction of the iPod and its accompanying iTunes Store would open up a new world of e-commerce opportunities for the music industry. When Barnes & Noble, the world’s largest bookseller, starts to shift attention to digital media, though, it’s time to take notice. One thing is certain to happen in the e-publishing industry: change. 

Zakiya Lathan  has worked in broadcast news as a Web producer and online journalist for CBS affiliate KTVA-TV in Anchorage, Alaska. She has also produced newscasts for the Anchorage, Alaska, FOX affiliate KTBY-TV.