My local Borders was replaced with a Books A Million, which is alright. I prefer B&N far more though.
Best of luck to brick and mortar book stores.
I like a lot of B&N's concepts and ideas with the Nook. Allowing owners to read Nook books for free while they're at a B&N brick and mortar location was ingenious. If only the hardware had taken off...
If MS buys Nook, I expect that would be about bringing Nook experience and features (such as you described above) to Windows Tablets, via app with more features than vanilla Nook app for iOS/Android, preinstalled on W8 tablets... maybe also via integration of B&N web store with Windows Store.
Since smaller (7-8") Windows Tablets are on the way and should challenge high-end colour readers from B&N and Amazon price wise, I cannot see MS being in the mood to create dedicated eBook reader hardware. But adding exclusive features to, say, 7" RT tablet (while slashing price down significantly) could reach some new customers.
I am probably part of the Nook problem, but I bought it as a device with video specs in the same ballpark as the iPad at less than half the price. I immediately installed an N2A card which converted it into a vanilla Android Ice Cream Sandwich machine. All it lacks is the cameras, which I don't particularly miss. I love it and for what it cost me, it's hard to beat.
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If MS buys Nook, I expect that would be about bringing Nook experience and features (such as you described above) to Windows Tablets, via app with more features than vanilla Nook app for iOS/Android, preinstalled on W8 tablets... maybe also via integration of B&N web store with Windows Store.
Since smaller (7-8") Windows Tablets are on the way and should challenge high-end colour readers from B&N and Amazon price wise, I cannot see MS being in the mood to create dedicated eBook reader hardware. But adding exclusive features to, say, 7" RT tablet (while slashing price down significantly) could reach some new customers.