In the beginning was the Kindle, and then, there were Kindle follow-ons. Amazon jump started the dormant e-book market with the launch of this product family, and for a while was king of the mountain. As we’ve reported in these lines, a number of other outfits think they can do the e-book thing better, since they think the Kindle is dorky piece of gear. These guys are headed for chapter 11, since it’s not about the gear. Amazon charged ahead because they had the reader, the inventory, an aggressive discount policy on digital versions of the books they sell, which are easy to get, wirelessly. Barnes and Noble sells a lot of books too, and they went after Amazon big time. Next week, B&N will launch their version of an ebook reader, and some leaked photos of the gadget, along with some specifications and description, have popped up in different places. We are going with the story on WIRED’s news site. B&N will allow users to share books, while Amazon does not, giving the new guys an extra advantage.
Reader
PS: I should have mentioned that the new item is called the “Nook”, for “N Book” maybe?