Barnes & Noble has teamed up with Samsung to build the next Nook tablet in a bid to revive its money-losing e-book reader business.
Barnes & Noble, the renowned retailer of content, digital media and educational products, is teaming up with the world's largest smartphone manufacturer, Samsung, to build Galaxy Tab 4 Nook tablets. The new partnership will help the struggling book seller to lure more buyers to its money-losing Nook tablets. While Samsung designs the hardware for the upcoming Nook tablets using its own flagship Galaxy hardware, Barnes & Noble will focus on the software end.
The partnership was announced Thursday in an official press release, which also revealed the first Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook tablet will be available in the U.S., early August. The tablet will feature a 7-inch display and feature the extensive collection of more than three million digital books, magazines and newspaper offered by the New York based book seller.
"We are very excited and proud to partner with Samsung, a world-class technology and tablet leader, to create customized co-branded devices featuring our valuable NOOK reading experience and digital content catalog for Barnes & Noble customers nationwide," Michael P. Huseby, CEO of Barnes & Noble, , said in a press statement. "Standing behind these great new devices will be the power of our 40,000 Barnes & Noble booksellers combined with our deep bookselling and retail expertise to provide sales support and personalized in-store customer service for our lineup of new Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 NOOK products."
The new addition of Samsung Nook tablets will help bolster its presence in the digital media. The partnership proves a bigger victory for B&N, as the manufacturing costs will drastically reduce for the next two years while the company focuses on revenue growth using its core bookselling business. The bookselling company also said that it will continue to offer the Nook GlowLight e-book reader, which was launched in October last year.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook will be available online and in nearly 700 Barnes & Noble bookstores, starting August. The pricing details and the technical specifications of the tablet have not been revealed.
