Newco – Barnes & Noble, Microsoft form Strategic Partnership

[JMH]

Barnes & Noble Inc. and Microsoft today announced the formation of a strategic partnership in a new Barnes & Noble subsidiary, which will build upon the history of strong innovation in digital reading technologies from both companies.
The partnership will accelerate the transition to e-reading, which is revolutionizing the way people consume, create, share and enjoy digital content.

http://www.msigeek.com/6864/newco-barnes-noble-microsoft-form-strategic-partnership?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+msigeek+%28msigeek.com+|+Technology+Simplified.%29

 

[Corrine]

Here's the part of the Microsoft and Barnes & Noble agreement everyone's ignoring

Now that we’re all speculated out about the possibility of a Windows-based Nook (a Wook?), it’s time to start ruminating on what’s cooking between Microsoft and Barnes & Noble on the Windows Phone front.

A B&N commercial agreement filing from earlier this week (which I found via a link in a New York Times story) ended up being well worth poring through, and not just because of a mention of a “Microsoft Reader.”

{Snip}

As B&N and Microsoft announced at the start of this week, B&N is building a Windows 8 Nook app (which this document says will be downloadable from the Windows 8 app store, and which will be free to consumers).

{Snip}

But… and this is just wild and crazy speculation on my part… what if there will be devices running the Windows Phone 8 operating system (Apollo) which are not like the current Windows Phone devices. What if Microsoft is planning to allow OEMs to put the Windows Phone OS on something bigger… like a Microsoft reader.

Snips from Mary Jo's article at Here's the part of the Microsoft and Barnes & Noble agreement everyone's ignoring | ZDNet which presents a different slant from what other tech reporters are saying.

 

[Corrine]

Will Barnes & Noble and Nook usher in a $199 Windows Metro tablet?

Part of the nature of this spin-off, currently called “NewCo” is to produce an e-reader application written for the Windows 8 Metro interface, which will be used on new tablets and PCs running on the x86 and ARM architectures.

But what about e-reader and Nook Tablet devices themselves, running on a Metro-enabled version of Windows?

{Snip}

While this OS is relatively closer to completion — the first Windows RT devices are likely to appear around the fall of 2012 — it would require more far more tweaking and likely require the creation of a special Windows SKU to build a 7″ tablet for Barnes & Noble’s new subsidiary.

Why? Well, the minimum specs for a Metro UI with snap support on Windows 8 is a screen resolution of 1366×768. While it is definitely doable to produce a 7″ device with such a screen resolution, it might be overkill and blow the BOM out of the water and prohibiting a product to be manufactured at a $199.00 price point.

Will Barnes & Noble and Nook usher in a $199 Windows Metro tablet? | ZDNet