Nook Media may never have spun itself away from Barnes and Noble, if it wasn’t for the 300 million Microsoft committed to the enterprise. The main reason Microsoft invested the money was to see Windows 8 have a flagship e-reading app, that it could market internationally. Numerous pitfalls have besieged the Nation’s largest bookseller and new SEC filing has Barnes and Noble suspending development on their apps for Windows 8 and Windows phones.
Microsoft has been developing their own e-reading app called the
Microsoft Consumer Reader. Windows 8 already has a very basic reading app, but only supports the PDF, XPS and TIFF files.
Basically what is happening is Microsoft is leveraging the Nook Windows 8 technology and implementing into their own app. Instead of B&N making solid apps on their own, they are going to just make them directly FOR Microsoft. This is likely a wise move on the Redmond based company, as they have more staying power in the technology sector. Who knows where Nook Media will be in a few years. In the last few months they axed their executive staff, fired 190 people and cut back funding by over 74%. Saying things are a bit dire at B&N, would be stating the obvious.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.