E-Textbooks: Barnes & Noble Targets Students with NOOKstudy

Earlier this morning, Barnes & Noble revealed NOOKstudy, a new software e-reader for Mac and Windows that focuses on making electronic textbooks more useful. Barnes & Noble developed this software with input from students and universities. NOOKstudy will allow students to read and annotate textbooks, as well as store copies of their syllabi, lecture notes and other course-related documents. The software, which will be available for free, is scheduled to ship in August.

Some analysts predict that close to 20% of textbooks sold in 2014 will be in digital form, so it only makes sense for a large retailer like Barnes & Noble to try to move into this market. With this move, Barnes & Noble is challenging Amazon, whose Kindle hasn't been able to succeed in educational settings yet, as well as online textbook services like CourseSmart.

(via RWW)

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I'm actually really excited about this. I'm not necessarily stoked for this particular platform for any reason, but I'm excited about the way this game is developing. Anyone who says digital publishing isn't the future of the industry is delusional, and it's awesome to watch how this new, growing market is being provided for. I am super stoked to see the way publishers are engaging content to keep information relevant and have an advantage over their competitors. I think all these developments serve to better both the industry and its consumers, and I'm really happy about it.

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