- Macworld, Tuesday, July 28, 2009 1:02 PM
B&N execs must have just finished Chris Anderson's
Free: Offering Web surfers an urban (or suburban) oasis, Barnes & Noble bookstores nationwide plan to begin offering free Wi-Fi access.
Since 2005, Barnes & Noble has offered AT&T access on a subscription-basis. On Tuesday, the two companies announced that AT&T Wi-Fi has gone complimentary.
Users with laptops, Wi-Fi
equipped smart-phones and other wireless devices can now surf the Web in stores without having to set up an account or pay. As a free service, Barnes & Noble is in a better position to market it
burgeoning e-book library.
Barnes & Noble recently announced its "eBookstore," and plans to release a dedicated e-book reader of its own -- in development by Plastic Logic - to compete
directly against Amazon.com and the Kindle. In the interim the company has released a free e-reader app.
The Barnes & Noble eBookstore launched with 700,000 titles, while the present
inventory offered by Amazon.com's Kindle is roughly 300,000 volumes. However, Barnes & Noble's number includes 500,000 e-books which are free public-domain offerings from Google.
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