Nook eBooks On Sale in the UK

I posted a few days ago that Barnes & Noble were launching in the UK in this article.  There were two flies in the ointment at the time of writing that post, the first being that the B & N book-store hadn't been launched in the UK, the second that the more interesting models weren't currently on sale.

Well, since that posting events have continued apace.  In the last day or two the UK book-store has been launched, quietly and efficiently, on this URL.  It looks like the full library of books that are available in the US are listed here, as far as I can tell.  I'm certainly aware that the full Smashwords catalogue has been ported across, including my own books.

From what I can see the search engine is slick and intuitive.  More importantly, the company has announced the device line up, which is pretty much the same as I suggested a week ago, but has added two important extra pieces of information.  The first is that the two tablets in the range, the 7" and 9" Nook HDs, are now slated for launch with a firm date: 22 November.

The second piece of information released today is that in addition to the stores named as stockists for the Nook product range in my earlier blog is that Asda, the UK subsidiary of Wal-Mart, has taken the range on.  As has been noted by Mark Coker, CEO of Smashwords, this is a big deal.  Selling eReaders via book-stores seems to be a sensible way of working, but really only works for those who frequent bookshops.  In reality, bookshops can be daunting places for non-bookish types, whereas Asda is the port of call for millions of people in the UK weekly.  Plus, let's not forget that some of these devices will appeal to a lot of people as a classy Christmas present.  It isn't the only eReader Asda are selling - they already sell the full range of Kobo eReaders and tablets plus, on-line at least, they also sell iPads and the Nexus 7.  Hopefully they will stock a number of tablets and eReaders in-store for customers to feel and play with.

For me, the most interesting of the tablets is the 9" Nook HD - I need to explore the spec in more detail and the ominous sounding 'from £229' doesn't fill me with competitive confidence, but on pure looks it wins already.

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