With the
release of its updated Nook e-reader application for Android phones, Barnes & Noble is making tablet magazines available through one of its free apps for the first time. The new Nook for Android app will give people using Android-powered tablets access to more than 140 magazines and
newspapers, including ESPN The Magazine, The Economist, Rolling Stone, Travel + Leisure and Us Weekly.
Previously, the digital magazine editions had only been accessible through
Barnes & Noble's Nook Color e-reading device. The Nook Android app adopts features found on the company's e-reader, including ArticleView, a tool that shows only an article's text customized according
to a user's favorite style and presented on a central panel in the display. It also includes full-color pages, pinch-and-zoom capability and the ability to jump to a particular page.
In addition
to magazines, the Nook Android app also affords access to Barnes & Noble's catalog of more than 2 million digital e-books. Customers using 7-inch and larger Android tablets with high-resolution
displays, including the Samsung Galaxy Tab, Motorola XOOM, and LG G-Slate will be able to take advantage of the 140-title Nook Newsstand and an improved book-reading experience, according to Barnes &
Noble.
The book retail chain is offering the upgraded Nook Android app via the Android Market, V Cast Apps from Verizon Wireless, Samsung Apps and GetJar, among other mobile app storefronts. The
additional distribution that digital magazines will get through the Nook Android app should be welcome news to publishers as they seek to expand digital sales.
Amazon last month unveiled its own
Kindle app optimized for Android tablets, designed to take advantage of the larger tablet screen size and provide a new layout for magazines and newspapers. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos this week also hinted the company may introduce its own Amazon-branded tablet.
The iPad is still by far the dominant tablet, with an estimated 85% of the market. But Gartner
projects Android tablets will grow to nearly 40% of the category by 2015, while the iPad's share's slips to 47%. By partnering with multiple handset makers on its open-source mobile platform,
Android has already been able to overtake Apple in the smartphone market.
Publishers have lately made strides toward selling subscriptions on the iPad. Hearst, Time Inc. and Conde Nast reached
agreements with Apple to either offer subscriptions or free access to existing print subscribers to magazines on the iPad, including Esquire, The New Yorker and Sports Illustrated.