Barnes & Noble now sells its nook ereader at Best Buy, expanding distribution as it faces growing competition with the entry of Apple’s iPad (SEE nook vs iPad).
Best Buy will be the first and only chain to carry the device other than Barnes & Noble, the largest U.S. specialty bookstore chain, putting the electronics seller at the center of the fast-growing ereader market.
The exclusive deal calls for Best Buy to also include Barnes & Noble’s BN eReader software on some of the personal computers and mobile devices it sells. Currently, the nook is available at Barnes & Noble’s website and 723 bookstores.
The deal with Best Buy will greatly increase the Nook’s availability and ability to compete with the recently launched iPad, a portable computing and entertainment system that also functions as an e-reader and is sold at Best Buy in addition to Apple stores.
Along with the iPad and the Nook, Best Buy also sells Sony”s Reader. The other major player in the e-reader wars, online retailer Amazon.com Inc, sells its market-leading Kindle (SEE nook vs Kindle) on its own web site.
“This partnership provides [Barnes & Noble] with an additional distribution channel, which is critical to driving sales of the Nook,” said Michael Souers, an analyst with Standard & Poor’s Equity Research.
Unlike Amazon, whose downloads are not compatible with competing ereaders, Barnes & Noble’s ebook store is “device agnostic” — meaning owners of the iPad or Sony’s Reader can download titles from the site.