Users who’ve heavily invested in Barnes & Noble’s Nook media experiences now have a wealth of new devices to use instead of their Nook Tablet or Nook HD.
Starting today, users can download Nook Video for iPhone, iPad and any device runningGoogle’s Android operating system. The application is free of charge, and acts as a digital gateway to the Nook video store that’s already been available exclusively on the Barnes & Noble’s tablets for some time.
Users will be able to watch all of the television shows and movies that they’ve already purchased through the store, they can also purchase new content and the application will stream it in high-definition instantly.
Nook Video on the Apple iPad
Nook Video is debuting on Roku today as well. Unfortunately, just as with Nook’s eBook store, Windows users will be the last to get in on the action. If the company does have plans to make Nook Video available to Windows Phone and Windows 8 users it didn’t detail it in today’s press release. This is especially interesting since Microsoft actually owns a significant stake in Nook Media, the Barnes & Noble subsidiary that is responsible for the Nook devices.
In fact, its Microsoft’s rumored buy-out of Nook Media that first hinted that Barnes & Noble was preparing to stop making Nook tablets. According to those reports, Barnes & Noble had already decided to phase out its tablet operations and focus on creating eBook readers with e-ink screens and longer battery life.
The arrival of Nook Video signals the company’s final transition away from hardware. It’s already given Nook users the ability to install applications from places other than its own App Store. Together with the Nook apps for Android and iOS, most users will be able to move on to other tablets and still get most of the same experiences that they could on their Nook tablet.
So far, Microsoft’s buyout of Barnes and Noble has yet to materialize, though today’s release of Nook Video indicates that the company is moving ahead with scaling down its in-house device portfolio.
How well Nook Video performs on either Android or iOS remains unclear. Both operating systems already have exclusive video stores that offer more content than Nook Video, however neither offer the ability to watch content on each other.
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