Microsoft Invests $300 Million In Nook e-Readers 197
First time accepted submitter NGTechnoRobot writes "In a turn for the books the BBC reports that Microsoft has invested $300 million in Barnes and Noble's Nook e-reader. The new Nook reader will integrate with Microsoft's yet-to-be-released Windows 8 operating system. From the article: 'The deal could make Barnes and Noble's Nook e-book reader available to millions of new customers, integrating it with the Microsoft's new Windows 8 operating system. The as-yet unnamed new company will be 82.4% owned by Barnes and Noble, with Microsoft getting a 17.6% stake.' Guess the lawsuit's over, folks."
Re:Very Clever Long-Term Business Planning (Score:5, Insightful)
The thing is, I don't want my e-reader to "integrate" with my PC. (I'm in the Kindle lock-in camp rather than the Nook lock-in camp, but that's not the point.) I want the device to be able to function completely independently. If I ever need to plug it into my computer at all, I consider that a usability failure. I feel the same way about my smartphone.
Re:Very Clever Long-Term Business Planning (Score:3, Insightful)
I agree - it's been one of my big complaints about iProducts. My Android phone updates over the air, as does my Nook Color. If I plug them into a PC then I get an added bonus (easy file transfer mostly) but I could use either one heavily for years without ever needing to plug it into a PC and not really miss out on anything.
Re:Very Clever Long-Term Business Planning (Score:4, Insightful)
Errr... unless you are lazily lumping everything that isn't Xbox into 'win "os"':
- Internet Explorer could hardly be called a miserable failure (it was a cross-platform product until Apple no longer needed it). It may not be good, but it did not fail
- Outlook is a failed product?
- Office generally, a failed product?
- Sharepoint, a failed product?
For those of us who are older:
- MS-DOS was a failed product?
- Microsoft BASIC?
- Visual BASIC?
- Word (before office)?
- Visual C, Visual C++?
Don't talk nonsense.
Re:Very Clever Long-Term Business Planning (Score:1, Insightful)
that's why EVERY ms product line apart from 2 (win "os", and xbox live) has miserably failed to date.
Yes, because MS Office, Visual Studio, games like Flight Simulator, Halo, Age of Empires etc are miserable failures. And that's just off the top of my head. Hell, even Microsoft's mouses and keyboards have always been held to high standard.
And now the Nook will die (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Very Clever Long-Term Business Planning (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:And now the Nook will die (Score:2, Insightful)
Facebook?
Apple?
MSNBC?
Re:Very Clever Long-Term Business Planning (Score:2, Insightful)
getting the same or similar for less money in the future is what I call progress.
The problem is, "same or similar" is *very* subjective in these sort of contexts.
No mention in the story (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Very Clever Long-Term Business Planning (Score:5, Insightful)
But what does blathering on about nothing gains the shill?
Okay, for this explanation, first assume that Slashdot matters as much as it did ten years ago. I know, I know, that sounds like I'm horribly behind the times, but this IS Microsoft we're talking about, so it makes sense. The "horribly behind the times" part, that is.
Now, past that, assume that it's not just geeks and nerds that read this, it's also businessmen and managers and other "important decision makers". Yes, yes, again, same necessary sub-assumptions as before.
Then, remember that Slashdot's commenting mechanism is based on the first post appearing on top. And, most importantly, remember the key advertising term: "Above the fold". That is, the presumption by advertisers (generally with merit) that things higher up on a page or otherwise in a more prominent position will be remembered better, even subconsciously, by the readers. Plus, lump into that the presumption (again, generally with merit) that the first opinion people read shapes their initial feelings about a given subject.
See where I'm going with this? That's why we have the first post wankers, except that they're there more for the recognition than any marketing purposes. It's up to you to decide which is more damaging to sane conversation and discourse.
So, take all that and wrap it up in a bundle of generic marketing-speak. Put that Microsoft(r) name in their heads! Talk it up, too! And get it out NOW! Before the consumer blob has any chance to read anything else! And stay on point, damnit! Don't ever let the competition get recognized in your rant, unless it's in a bad light (re: the requisite dig at Google)! Slashdot gets traffic, so enough of that has to be made of high-paid executives and managers for Fortune 500 companies that we can convince them to use Microsoft(r) Windows(tm) brand operating system(tm) food product(tm), right? That logic worked back in the early 90s before the internet came out and Microsoft could buy advertising in any non-Apple-specific publication, it'll DAMN well work now, too!
So, that's it. Unravel the logic from the point of view of a company that can't mentally get out of the 90s, the last time they were unequivocally "winning". Or who willingly ignored the internet as a passing fad. Or whose primary high-paying customers are high-paid businesspeople. Then it'll all make sense. Well, it'll make sense why they think paying their shills to do this will mean profits later.
In fact, the more I think about how blatantly backwards and behind all of this is, the more I have this faint feeling in the back of my head that maybe these shills are actually an altogether-too-clever mockery of Microsoft that happens to fall on the wrong side of Poe's Law...
Re:Very Clever Long-Term Business Planning (Score:4, Insightful)
Perhaps you didn't read the vitriol in some of B&N's reports.
They made it very clear that they viewed Microsoft's approach as nothing more or less than brigandry.
Re:Very Clever Long-Term Business Planning (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Samsung is larger - by value (Score:2, Insightful)