ITC staff lawyer Jeff Hsu in a discussion Monday said he would recommend to Administrative Law Judge Theodore Essex that Barnes & Noble hadn't violated the three patents at the heart of a Microsoft lawsuit. The recommendation isn't binding, but could be a strong clue as to the ruling Judge Essex may make on April 27.
The International Trade Commission gave an initial ruling Tuesday that Barnes & Noble couldn't bring its antitrust claims against Microsoft. An Administrative Law Judge granted Microsoft's motion to dismiss the claims that it was abusing patents to try and squeeze Android out of the market. Details of the full ruling were still unpublished, but the Office of Unfair Import Investigations had already hinted that Barnes & Noble wasn't passing legal muster on issues such as licensing, which isn't compulsory for Microsoft.
Barnes & Noble's chief merchandising officer Jaime Carey issued a statement declaring that the company's retail stores wouldn't carry Amazon's paper books. The move was in retaliation for Amazon trying to push for e-book exclusives such as its DC Comics deal. A publisher that as a store operator would pull its content wasn't a "good publishing partner," the CMO said.
Barnes & Noble in an elaborate study of its business gave away plans for a third-generation Nook e-reader. Scant details were given to the New York Times, but it would ship sometime in the spring. The bookseller's recently established pattern suggests it's an E Ink reader like the Nook Simple Touch rather than an Android tablet.
Toshiba has introduced a new seven-inch color e-book reader in Japan, the BD50. Effectively a local alternative to the Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet, the Android 2.3 slate carries a 1024x600 LCD as well as 8GB of internal storage space. A 1GHz Freescale CPU powers the device and is paired with 1GB of RAM.
Apple during its fall quarter results revealed IDC data that tablets outsold PCs in the fall. While he didn't provide concrete details, he suggested that the iPad, Android, and other tablet platforms had pushed past the combined Mac and Windows PC markets. IDC's own PC figures showed 18.6 million US computers, making it probable that Apple's 15.4 million plus the smaller share of the rest of the market was enough to push past.
Ownership of both tablets and e-readers exploded through the holidays, Pew found on Monday. About 10 percent of Americans owned each in December, but both had surged to 19 percent in January. There was relatively little overlap, as 18 percent owned one or the other before the holiday rush while 29 percent had either an e-reader or a tablet in January.
Apple's New York City education event is nothing less than a rethinking of how publishers create e-books as a whole, leaks divulged Monday. One scoop characterized the process to Ars Technica as a "GarageBand for e-books" that would let authors and publishers easily build e-books for iPads and iPhones, including interactive books. iBooks would also start supporting ePub 3, which supports audio and video natively and would make the store much more standards-compatible than Apple's custom take on ePub 2.
LG on Thursday became the latest company steered into signing a patent license deal with Microsoft. The Spectrum designer has agreed to pay Microsoft an unknown amount for "broad coverage" both on Android and Chrome OS despite LG not yet having a Chromebook on the market. Unlike past such licenses, however, Microsoft didn't issue a boilerplate observation that LG was paying royalties, leaving the door open to a lump sum.
Microsoft has scaled back the reach of its dispute with Barnes & Noble has made a deal to streamline some of the case. A filing this week dropped one patent, for a browser loading status feature, from an International Trade Commission complaint against the Nook maker. Four other patents had some of their individual claims dropped.
Barnes & Noble conducted an unusual strategy Thursday that amounted to an attempt to sell its Nook e-reader business. Although its Nook sales spiked 70 percent over what they were last year, the company was considering both breaking out the Nook group both for separate reporting as well as a selloff. The company wanted to "unlock that value" in its digital business, it said, and was planning a review that by the end of the year would make a decision on the business.
Barnes & Noble is considering selling off its paper publishing wing Sterling Publishing, new leaks might have divulged on Wednesday. In hoping to focus on the Nook line and its core retail business, it was lining up possible customers, the Wall Street Journal said. The bookshop has been publishing some of its own content since the 1970s but only bought Sterling in 2003, years before e-books took off.
Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair doused investor expectations of a 7.85-inch mini iPad with an update on Friday. He believed Apple had been testing seven-inch tablets for "over a year," but he didn't expect Apple to release one of the kind in 2012. While not claiming inside knowledge, he instead reckoned that Apple would follow the iPhone strategy of preserving an older model and keep the iPad 2 on the market, just at a lower price.
Barnes & Noble has just revealed that it has added new official apps to its Nook Tablet and Nook Color devices. They include the popular Words with Friends, with Twitter and Plants vs. Zombies coming soon. Others are promised for early next year as well.
Tablet display panel makers claimed Wednesday that orders for seven-inch tablet displays in November had overtaken those of 9.7-inch displays, which are used almost exclusively in the iPad. The combination of strong Amazon Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet demand was said by the Digitimes contacts to have pushed order up 17 percent month to month. The sources didn't provide targets for December or break down shipments by the individual maker, although Barnes & Noble may have shipped 1.5 million Nooks while rumors have surfaced of five million Kindle Fires shipping in 2011.
A new tablet display showdown at DisplayMate has given the Nook Tablet the win over Apple's iPad 2 for display quality. Both are accurate and have bright, 24-bit color displays, but the Barnes & Noble reader has better-balanced contrast and gamma levels. Apple's levels were boosted too high, according to the study.
Frequent patent-based attacker Mosaid on Monday said its shareholders had greenlit a plan that would sell the company to Sterling Fund Management for $570 million, or slightly less than the $590 million mentioned in October. It should close by the end of this week. Sterling's exact aims weren't mentioned with the deal.
Barnes & Noble may have doubled its tablet shipments in the fall. Having shipped over 800,000 Nook Color devices in the summer, the company was said by part suppliers speaking to Digitimes late Thursday to be delivering a combination of 1.5 million Android-based devices during the fall. About 1.1 million of those would be the new Nook Tablet, with the remaining 400,000 being the price-discounted Color.
Amazon's Kindle Fire could cut Apple's share of the tablet market to under 60 percent for the first time, IDC estimated Thursday. Android would climb from 32.4 percent to get a collective 40.3 percent through the Fire which, along with some help from the Nook Tablet, would push the iPad down from 61.5 percent this summer to 59 percent of tablets. The BlackBerry PlayBook would lose some ground as well, down from 1.1 percent to 0.7 percent, while the HP TouchPad's final exit would give up five percent.
Barnes & Noble as promised has rolled out the 1.4 update to the Nook Color. The upgrade is key to switching on content made available first on the Nook Tablet and lets users get the Netflix video app as well as watch UltraViolet-linked movies through the Flixster app. Readers can also browse Nook Comics from Marvel, IDW, Dynamite, and others.
Barnes & Noble got an important win late this week after the ITC agreed (PDF) to make requests to Canada and Finland for evidence from patent holder Mosaid as well as Nokia. The calls would have Mosaid supply documents for its deal with Nokia through a letter rogatory, or a non-binding request to a foreign court. Nokia, meanwhile, would be asked for testimony from CEO Stephen Elop and other executives under the Hague Convention's Article 3, in which case the court wouldn't have much choice but to comply.
Kobo is trying a unique strategy to lure readers away from Amazon, Apple, and Barnes & Noble by promising regular free e-books. Anyone who buys a Kobo Touch and first uses it on or before March 31 gets a free e-book each month. The publishers include Harvard Business Review Press, e-Reads, F+W Media, Gooseberry Patch, and New Word City, as well as four independent authors.
Sony has quietly dropped the price of the Reader Wi-Fi to $130. The $20 drop came less than two months after the e-reader went on sale in mid-October. The Starter and Travel bundles keep their earlier $205 prices.
The Amazon Kindle Fire has already occupied much of the Android tablet market in just one season, IHS iSuppli estimated Friday. At 3.9 million of the mini Android tablets, it would have 13.8 percent of the entire tablet share for the fall. Researchers are modeling for Apple to ship 18.6 million iPads, which would be enough to get it 65.6 percent of the tablet space.
As part of its fiscal 2012 second-quarter financial results, Barnes & Noble revealed that its Nook Tablet was the fastest-selling Nook product in the history of the company. It was launched on November 7, priced at $249, at which time the company also had its Nook Color tablet dropped to $199, and Nook Simple Touch at $99. Total Nook sales, including content and accessories, increased by 85 percent to $220 million during this time.
Certain local Target and Walmart stores have at least temporarily been selling the Amazon Kindle Fire for $123.38. Images have surfaced showing the Fire, as a limited time special in a Trumbull, Connecticut Target store for 35 percent off the normal selling price of $199. Photos of Walmart matching that price have also appeared on the web.
Barnes & Noble revealed that its Black Friday sale will also bring a rare version of the Nook Simple Touch. A Limited Edition version of the touchscreen e-reader will arrive only in physical stores, and only on November 25, with a white border as its signature feature. Price will be its real difference: at $79, it will be both $20 less than the regular price and match the price of the basic Kindle while giving features closer to the ad-sponsored $99 Kindle Touch.
A new McPheters & Company study has shown that publishers are just as likely to publish tablet magazines through the Nook store and Zinio reader app as they do through the iPad. Apple's tablet was almost exactly as likely to have a magazine publisher support it as its two rivals, with 46 percent signing on and just a one point difference with Barnes & Noble and Zinio. The iPhone was also equal, showing that the smaller screen wasn't necessarily a deterrent.
Keeping up the tradition of hacked Nooks, XDA-Developers forum contributors have posted a full root for the Nook Tablet. A combination of USB drivers as well as either a batch program or a command line sequence will let users freely install or remove apps on the Android 2.3 slate. The hack, zergRush, doesn't unlock the bootloader and thus won't take completely new firmware like CyanogenMod.
Barnes & Noble in its defense against Microsoft has countered with a 43-page list of prior art that it believes invalidate Microsoft's supposedly Android-related patents. The examples often go back over 16 years and include software as far back as NCSA's Mosaic browser, the precursor to Netscape and Microsoft's own Internet Explorer. The strategy would only need a handful of prior art claims to negate Microsoft's case.
IHS iSuppli revised its earlier cost breakdown for the Amazon Kindle Fire to a lower figure in a more final estimate that showed Amazon was still taking a loss on each device sold. While it's now expected to cost just $201.70 to make, that still told AllThingsD the $199 Android tablet was losing Amazon money on each sale, even before factoring in shipping and other costs. A look at the final product showed that there were cost savings even beyond what had been expected, including on the inside.
Amazon will fill a conspicuous gap in the Kindle Fire's newsstand Wednesday based on leak. Staff at Time Inc. told AllThingsD that, after negotiations that ran past the Kindle Fire's launch day, the key magazines the publisher has on virtually all tablets will reach Amazon's Android device. Fortune, People, Real Simple, Sports Illustrated, and Time itself would be part of the launch.
Amazon's just-shipping Kindle Fire has already become the most desired target for Android apps, an Appcelerator study found. Of the Android developers it tracked on all platforms, 49 percent in North America wanted to target the reader tablet. It had already managed to become second worldwide, at 43 percent.
Another discovered document in Barnes & Noble's antitrust claims against Microsoft made to the Department of Justice has found that Microsoft is trying to build a defense by making Google provide details of its strategy. A motion to compel, dated October 4 but only found Thursday, would ask to get Google's vital business analysis for Android, including how it saw Microsoft's patent licensing scheme hurting Android, its current abilities as a PC platform, and how it saw Microsoft-made platforms like Windows Phone. Since Google led the Android Open Source Project, it would have to have opinions on Microsoft's impact, the motion read.
Amazon's fourth-generation Kindle costs more to make than its $79 selling price, a cost breakdown has uncovered. IHS iSuppli told Main St that the e-reader costs $84.25 to build, or a combination of the $78.59 in raw parts and $5.66 in assembly. The most expensive part was the E Ink Pearl screen, at $30.50, while the circuit board was next at $30.37.
Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten said late Tuesday that it was buying Kobo for $315 million in cash. The deal gives it access to both an e-bookstore and e-reader devices, including traditional devices like the Wireless eReader and Android tablets like the Kobo Vox. Rakuten explained it as a push to expand its ecosystem outside of Japan through a media store, where books would just be the start.
Barnes & Noble has quietly taken its allegations of Microsoft antitrust abuse to a formal level, according to newly-publicized documents. The company is now known to have sent a letter to the Department of Justice's chief competition counsel Gene Kimmelman on October 17 claiming that Microsoft's anti-Android patent licensing campaign was meant to artificially "drive out competition" and make companies choose Windows-based platforms. It contended that Microsoft's lawsuit against Barnes & Noble, Foxconn, and Inventec was more to silence competition from the Nook and other devices than any attempt to protect claimed innovations.
As expected, Barnes & Noble unveiled its Nook Tablet at a special event held in the company's flagship store in New York City. Electronista had a chance to take an early look at the new device, which is marketed as the best contender in the market for seven-inch tablets.
Barnes & Noble as part of its Nook Tablet intro also confirmed a price drop for the Nook Simple Touch, its new name for its e-paper touchscreen reader. The slate is going from its original $139 to $99, matching the Kindle Touch. Barnes & Noble claims superiority with a newly upgraded, 25 percent faster page update speed, an estimated doubled battery life over its Amazon equivalent, and a lack of ads at the same price.
Barnes & Noble at its special event confirmed the rumored launch of the Nook Tablet. The seven-inch sequel to the Nook Color is now much more of a media tablet with a dual-core processor and a doubled 1GB of RAM. The speed upgrade lets the Android 2.3 device handle 1080p video along with new Hulu Plus and Netflix apps and newer games.
Two retailers gave clues as to future plans for Android hardware on Saturday. A leak from Costco has put the Verizon edition of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus at a $290 price on a contract. The Android Central tip isn't concrete but suggests Costco will have a $10 discount off of Verizon's very common $300 price for new LTE-capable phones, like its Nexus model.
(Update: TigerDirect too) Fry’s Electronics said on Friday that it would carry the former's Nook products in November. The companies specifically name the Nook Color and Simple Touch, while omitting the Nook Tablet, though it's expected to be unveiled on November 7. Fry's operates 34 stores in nine states.
Barnes & Noble is planning to drop its claims of focusing only on reading and attack the tablet market more directly, a slew of leaks confirmed to Android Central late Thursday. Its November 7 event will see it roll out the Nook Tablet, the rumored high-end model. Although it will still have the Nook Color's heavily customized Android interface, it will carry a much faster dual-core, 1.2GHz TI OMAP processor with 1GB of RAM, similar to Motorola's Xoom 2, and 16GB of storage with a microSDHC slot.
Barnes & Noble sent invitations to Electronista and other members of the press for its widely rumored November 7 event. The gathering will follow the bookseller's tradition of holding events in its Union Square bookstore in New York City. Nothing is mentioned of the contents other than the Nook logo and promises of a "very special announcement."
The rumored Nook Color 2 may be out on November 7, The Digital Reader reported, citing three separate sources. All of them are Barnes & Noble employees, with one of them saying that a big, Nook-related announcement is coming on November 7. A team meeting touched on it related to the revamp of stores' Nook displays and sections.
Although Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet stole the show last month at the company's launch event, the company also introduced an update to its traditional Kindle reader. The fourth-generation model brings a smaller housing and improved E Ink display, but without the hardware keyboard that was present on each of the earlier models. In our full review, we determine how the new Kindle stacks up against the earlier models and competing devices.
Condé Nast suggested on Tuesday that tablet magazines might have turned a corner with the launch of iOS 5. Since the iPad received access to Newsstand, subscriptions across titles like GQ and The New Yorker climbed 268 percent. Single issues reaped their own rewards and spiked 142 percent, the publisher said.
Tablet screen shipments spiked 35.5 percent in September in the wake of a seven-inch tablet boom, researchers at WitsView said in a new study. About 9.57 million of their panels shipped just in September, 1.82 million of which were for the smaller devices. The Amazon Kindle Fire, ASUS Eee Pad MeMo, the HTC Flyer, and possibly a new Nook Color were all adding to the tally.
Barnes & Noble on Friday retaliated against DC Comics for its decision to offer its comics exclusively on the Amazon Kindle Fire. As of Friday, 100 of DC's graphic novels were being pulled from Barnes & Noble's physical stores, including Watchmen, V For Vendetta, and The Dark Knight Returns. Online orders are still an option, but they must be delivered at home, not to the store.
Pandigital hoped to raise the bar on starter tablet e-readers with a Friday unveiling for the SuperNova. The eight-inch tablet is still rare in the class for having a capacitive touchscreen and has a 4:3, 800x600 aspect ratio that suits magazines and newspapers. To fully customize the OS, it uses the most basic version of Android 2.3 and doesn't have the official Android Market, although it does have GetJar's app store as well as preloaded access to Barnes & Noble's bookstore and Flash.
