Microsoft and Nook redo their agreement; no Microsoft e-reader in the works
Summary: It looks like the Nook Windows 8 app may be superseded by a Microsoft reading app. But the planned Nook Windows Phone app is seemingly tabled. — On March 10, Microsoft and Nook Media updated …
Context & Ripple Effects
The relationship has been unwinding from its 2012 peak: Microsoft and Barnes & Noble formalized their Nook Media joint venture in October 2012, and by May 2013 Microsoft was reportedly weighing a $1 billion buyout of Nook Media LLC outright. That acquisition talk went nowhere, and in February 2014 reports emerged that Microsoft was building its own 'Xbox Reading' app for Windows 8.
The March 10 agreement update confirms where this is heading: rather than buying Nook Media, Microsoft is folding reading functionality into a first-party app that may supersede the Nook Windows 8 client, while a rumored Windows Phone version of the Nook app appears shelved. A Microsoft spokesperson denies any Microsoft e-reader device is in development. The story drew wide pickup across trade and business outlets including the Wall Street Journal, CNET, and Business Insider.
First-order effects
- Nook Windows 8 users face a likely migration path to a Microsoft-branded reading app, ending the Nook client's role as Microsoft's storefront for digital books on Windows.
- Windows Phone users lose the prospect of a native Nook app, leaving Microsoft's mobile platform without Barnes & Noble's catalog client at all.
Second-order effects
- Barnes & Noble loses its guaranteed distribution foothold on Windows devices, narrowing its digital retail reach back toward its own Nook hardware and website just as its tablet ambitions were already under strain.
- For publishers and distributors, the shift signals that Microsoft intends to control the reading experience itself, changing who owns customer relationships and merchandising placement on Windows.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, platform owners increasingly absorb partner-branded apps into first-party services rather than deepening joint ventures — a structural turn away from the co-investment model Microsoft and Barnes & Noble built in 2012.
- E-reading consolidates around whoever controls the OS-level surface, pressuring standalone e-book ecosystems to justify their own apps on rival platforms or retreat to dedicated hardware.
The trend: Digital reading is consolidating into first-party platform applications, eroding the value of partner-branded e-book apps and the joint ventures built around them.