I’ve just returned from the launch of the new Barnes & Noble e-book reader, the Nook, which was bizarrely held in one of the most out-of-the-way spots in Manhattan - Chelsea Piers on the Hudson - at 4pm.

Perhaps the slog to get there and back, and sit in a hot, crowded room with lots of publishers and agents, has biased me against the product, which is a slickly executed attempt to rival Amazon’s Kindle.

It is about the same size as the Kindle, will be about $20 cheaper when it goes on sale at the end of November. It also gets one-up on the Kindle in various ways, including having a small colour screen at the bottom of the device (below the main E-Ink one) on which you navigate, and browse B&N’s electronic bookstore.

One thing I liked was that the books are sold in the Epub open format, which is supported by publishers, and the device runs on Google’s Android open source software. In contrast, Amazon sells books in a proprietary format, ensuring they can only be read on Kindles or Kindle software.

Apart from that, B&N has a decent chance of rivalling Amazon, at least in the US, because it has very strong distribution power through its 700 retail stores and 600 college book stores.

However, the somewhat chaotic event and the branding reminded me of the launch of Microsoft’s Zune music player, a late attempt to catch up with Apple’s iPhone.

The Zune also featured some extra gimmicks, such as the ability to swap songs between Zunes (the Nook allows one to “lend” books to friends to read on their own devices, or PCs).

In theory, the Zune was a smart attempt to mimic and improve on the iPod but in practice it gained very little traction. I wonder whether B&N will be able to overcome Amazon’s first mover advantage.

October 20, 2009 11:04pm in Business, Media | Comment