New York - Barnes & Noble unveiled a new electronic-book reader on Tuesday that will compete with Amazon.com's Kindle in a still-small arena where some see bookselling's future.
Closer to a printed book than its precursors in some respects, the "nook" allows users to lend their copies of electronic books to any friend who has installed Barnes & Noble's e-reader application on a mobile device or personal computer.
But the wireless nook, which runs on Google's Android platform and comes with 2 gigabytes of memory built in, also can store and play MP3 audio files and photos.
The reader is available on Barnes & Noble's website for $259 - same as the recently reduced Kindle - and is to start shipping in November.
Author Malcolm Gladwell read from his best-seller The Tipping Point during a launch event on Tuesday for the device in New York. The first 10 000 people to order a nook will get a free electronic copy of Gladwell's book.
The device comes with free wireless access in Barnes & Noble stores, where it will be displayed for sale.
Other features include a slot for adding up to 16 gigabytes more memory and a 8.9cm color touch screen below the page display. Less than 12.7cm wide and 20.3cm tall and weighing 317.5g, the nook is the size and weight of a paperback book, Barnes & Noble says.
Some e-book readers, including the Kindle, display only versions of books provided by the company that sells the device. But the nook, like Sony's e-readers, can display texts in PDF and epub formats, meaning users aren't limited to buying books from Barnes & Noble directly. Epub is an open standard supported by the International Digital Publishing Forum that numerous publishers use to make e-books.
The largest US book store chain is only the latest company to enter the e-reader market, which Kindle has dominated since its 2007 launch. Sony has sold e-readers since 2006 and plans to launch a new version with a touch screen and wireless downloading capability via AT&T in December. Smaller companies Irex Technologies and Plastic Logic also plan to offer e-readers soon.
So far, e-readership is small.
"Only 8% of the US adult population bought one e-book in 2008," and most read them on PCs, said Michael Norris, senior analyst at research firm Simba Information. "So it's a device that is extremely important to everyone except 92% of American adults."
Barnes & Noble hopes the e-reader and the company's new e-bookstore, launched in July, will boost sales. The e-bookstore, which sells versions of books to read on smart phones and other mobile devices and most personal computers using the company's e-book application, offers more than 1 million books, magazines and newspapers, including some titles offered free by Google.
Amazon.com offers about 350 000 e-books, and Sony offers about 100 000. Google offers free electronic versions of about 1 million titles that are in the public domain.
- AP