As Barnes & Noble(s bks) struggles to remain relevant in the ebook market, it's turning to Samsung in hopes of boosting digital content sales. The company announced a partnership on Thursday that will bring co-branded Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook tablets to the U.S. market by early August.
While details on the tablet are relatively scarce from the announcement, this decision does appear very innovative. Samsung already sells it's own version of the Galaxy Tab 4 for $200; it's an entry level 7-inch slate running Samsung's custom software on top of Google(s goog) Android. What exactly will a co-branded model offer to customers?
My guess: This will get the Nook branding and the freely-available Nook software pre-installed. Perhaps there will be some bonus content as well; Samsung already offers $700 worth of digital content and subscriptions for its more expensive tablets. The device will also be sold in Barnes & Noble retail stores next to its own Nook hardware.
Aside from that, however, this sounds like Barnes & Noble trying to expand its tablet line on the back of a well-known hardware partner instead of building new tablets of its own. In February, the company said it would launch a new tablet in fiscal 2015, but stopped short of saying it would build its own. Instead, the official statement read:
"The company is actively engaged in discussions with several world-class hardware partners related to device development as well as content packaging and distribution."
It sure looks like one of those world-class hardware partners is Samsung.