Continuing with a very source agnostic digital book strategy, Barnes & Noble has announced it will soon be offering an e-reader app for the Apple iPad.
The app will be designed specifically for the iPad’s tablet form factor, and will join B&N’s existing e-reader app family already available for Mac, PC, iPhone , iPod touch, and BlackBerry.
In other words, although the company is selling its own Nook e-reader device, it doesn’t want to lock potential book customers into a single platform or device. The company says that the goal is “providing consumers any book, anytime, anywhere.”
Like the other existing apps, the iPad app will give users access to the Barnes & Noble e-bookstore with more than one million e-books, magazines and newspapers, plus access of course to its existing digital library. The company expects to officially launch the app around the same time the iPad will be available, which should be April 3 if the existing rumor has any truth to it.
As publishers continue to flock to the iPad, what’s your current take on the e-reader versus tablet war that’s brewing? Can the two form factors coexist, or will tablets like the iPad steal the thunder from e-readers?
Tags: barnes & noble, e-readers, ipad
