Barnes and Noble has just unveiled their new Nook Audiobook App for Android. It is currently in beta and should be ready for prime time in the next few weeks. The service is launching with over 50,000 bestsellers, so there should be something here for everyone.
This is not the first time that Barnes and Noble has gotten into the audiobook game. In July, they shut down their old service that relied on Overdrive to provide all of the content. It was counter intuitive for users to buy the audio editions from the Nook website, only to be forced to download the Overdrive Media Console app, register an account and listen to content.
I have been tracking the e-reader and eBook industry since 2008 and Barnes and Noble has never sent out a press release or given media any sort of updates on what they were doing in the audiobook arena. The new app should change all of that, as the Nations largest bookseller makes a serious play to incorporate audio into their extensive library of eBooks, magazines, newspapers, graphic novels and movies/television.
Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past ten years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and Verge.