As reported on Engadget.
By Brian Heater
Barnes & Noble’s refusal to open its ecosystem has long been one of our primary complaints about the company’s tablet offerings. The Nook HD and HD+ are extremely nice pieces of hardware that have been held back by their own walled software offerings — having a fast device with a nice screen only gets you so far without the proper apps. The company line up to now has been that walling off content allows for a sort of quality control, assuring that apps are developed specifically for the unique form factor of its devices. And while there’s perhaps something to be said for that sentiment in the sometimes-fragmented world of Android devices, it was hard to ignore the fact that offering up exclusive access to content through your own marketplace assures better cash flow. It also, unfortunately, means that without extensive developer outreach, there are sure to be plenty of popular apps that just never make it over to your side of the fence.
With its announcement tonight, B&N acknowledges that, in this case, open is better. The company has responded directly to user feedback and will be issuing a software update to its Nook HD and Nook HD+ devices (sorry Nook Tablet and Color owners) that brings Google Play directly to the desktop. The software will come pre-loaded on new devices and will be available as an over-the-air update. If you can’t wait that long, you’ll also be able to download it directly from the bookseller’s site. The update also brings a few other tweaks to the system, but this is far and away the biggest news. The first question we asked upon getting a quick demo: will you be able to buy content like books, magazines and movies through Play? Yep, that’s coming too.
If purchased through Play, that content, along with music, will be available for consumption through Google’s app. Other standalone applications, though, will show up on your device alongside those you downloaded through Barnes & Noble’s offering — an app acquired via the latter, however, will feature a lower-case “n” Nook logo on its thumbnail to denote where you got it. Google’s app, interestingly, will go logo-free. Barnes & Noble will continue to offer its own apps and content through its store; the company’s hoping that the tailored experience and integration with its UI will be enough to keep users buying / downloading some portion directly from that store.
Though, in spite of the fact that they’re not made specifically with the Nook in mind, the company says that Play apps still look “great” on its devices — and certainly the quick demo that we got of Temple Run looked pretty smooth on the in-house HD+ The rest of the integration was fairly smooth, as well, though we did experience a quick crash when trying to click into the Music section of the Play store. By the second tap, however, everything seemed fine.
This update also brings some key Google apps on board, including Gmail, Maps and Chrome, which is now the default browser for the tablets, bringing tabs along for the ride. All in all, this marks a big move for Barnes & Noble. More choice is definitely a good thing, and the devices now have access to nearly all of Play’s 750,000 apps (though the lack of cameras on the devices does preclude the use of certain titles). The addition definitely makes the Nook HD and Nook HD+ even sweeter propositions. That goes double for UK buyers, with limited time offers reducing the price of the Nook HD from £159 to £129, and the Nook HD+ from £229 to £179.