Barnes & Noble gives Nook Another Try with Samsung’s help

Samsung has partnered with prestigious bookseller Barnes & Noble to develop a Galaxy Tab 4 Nook tablet which is set to be released in August. Even though Barnes & Noble did not experience the success expected with their e-reader “Nook”, the collaboration with Samsung may give the bookseller a second chance to make a strong impact in the market and offer a strong competition to Amazon’s Kindle and even Apple’s iPad. The partnership means that Barnes & Noble can leave the hardware design up to Samsung, while they focus on their software and their role as content providers.

The move comes after Barnes & Noble admitted last year that the Nook was not performing well in terms of sales and that in order to redesign the device, they would be looking for a partner. Furthermore, in order to cut costs, Barnes & Noble relocated the staff working in Nook Media to smaller, less expensive offices in Santa Clara, not far from Palo Alto, where they used to be based in high-priced installations. Barnes & Noble continue manufacturing the Nook GlowLight e-reader and the are also still selling their stock of Nook HD tablets online.

Little is known about the special features that the Samsung/ B&N device may offer, except that it comes with preloaded digital content from Barnes & Noble and supported by their experience in bookselling retail and personalized in-store customer service for Galaxy Tab 4 Nook users. In terms of specs, the device is expected to count with 1.2 GHz quad-core CPU, 1.5GB of RAM, 8GB/16GB storage capacity and 1280×800 resolution display. This specs may not be impressive but taking into consideration that the main purpose of the tablet is to act as an e-reader, they should be enough to make this an efficient device.

The 7-inch Galaxy Tab 4 Nook could be available for just $129, making it cheaper than Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7-inch, which retails for $229. The previous model of Nook contained over 3 million e-books, newspapers and magazines, as well as access to the Barned & Noble video service with titles from entertainment giants such as HBO, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros, Disney and Viacom. Additional features are family member profiles, scrapbooks function and interactive books for children.

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