For a while there it seemed like Amazon was going to kill off rivals like NOOK and Kobo, but there’s a little life left over at Barnes & Noble. After a long period of rumors that Microsoft would be taking over their slate initiatives, it appears that B&N turned to Samsung for their next NOOK.
The two companies have partnered up and basically the result of this cooperation will be a Galaxy Tab 4 with custom NOOK software. The 7 inch model comes to USA in early August, with Barnes & Noble bookstores as the selling points. The products will also be available online and Barnes & Noble claims that it will continue to offer the NOOK GlowLight, but this is basically the end of the series of NOOKS and a shift of strategy.
Cobranding means less risky costs and a guarantee of quality and marketing. This is basically the same move as the one that BlackBerry did with Foxconn a while ago, but we’ll have to let the months pass in order to see if this worked or not. It will be interesting to see what the price is for the Galaxy Tab 4 with NOOK versus the one without it.
