NOOKs to Get NFC, Not Windows 8
0
Since the announcement of the $605m deal between Microsoft and B&N, many e-reader fans have been wondering whether future NOOKs will run Microsoft Windows instead of Android. That doesn’t seem to have been discussed. At least that’s what B&N CEO William Lynch explained:
Currently, we’ve not communicated anything related to the roadmap about any hardware collaboration on Nook. Nook, as you know, uses open sourcing. Microsoft is obviously very entrenched in Windows. On the reading software side, in reading technologies, they’re making interesting integrations into Windows, potentially Office. That kind of work has already started. Definitively yes.
Things could always change in the future. NOOK has become popular partly due to the fact that it runs Android. We are not sure a Windows-based NOOK will be as appealing. Either way, future NOOKs are going to have NFC chips inside:
We’re going to start embedding NFC chips into our Nooks. We can work with the publishers so they would ship a copy of each hardcover with an NFC chip embedded with all the editorial reviews they can get on BN.com. And if you had your Nook, you can walk up to any of our pictures, any our aisles, any of our bestseller lists, and just touch the book, and get information on that physical book on your Nook and have some frictionless purchase experience.
The NFC experience is not expected to be rolled out in 2012 though. At this point, B&N needed a great technology partner and they have gotten it in Microsoft. Microsoft has enough development power to help take the NOOK platform to the next level. Let’s hope this partnership works out up to its potential.
