Monday Musings: Nook partnered with Samsung!

A new blog means that I am going to start some new features. The first I'm rolling out are my Monday Musings. Mostly random thoughts about reading, writing (and awesomeness).

My first post is about the partnership between Barnes and Noble's Nook and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4.

For some background info, Barnes and Noble was not as successful as they wanted to be with their Nook (first launched in 2009). Kindle was killing the eReader market and the Nook wasn't gaining as much of a fan following. So they scaled back a little in 2013. It looked like they were probably preparing to throw in the towel. But then in comes Samsung (Koreans for the win, woot!).

They released the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook tablet, a 7" tablet running on Android 4.4 OS.

I think Barnes and Noble made a smart move. They are not a gadget company, they're a book company. So while it always made sense to me that they would have an eReader, it didn't surprise me that they stumbled a little. They've partnered with Samsung, a company known for fighting against tech Goliaths and holding their own (see iPhone versus Samsung Galaxy S smartphones). I think this is really smart because B&N can go back to doing what they do best, books. And Samsung can take care of the hardware/tech part of this new eReader. Plus the Samsung Galaxy Tab is proven already, so it is not much of a stretch for people to pick up the new Nook and use it as easily as people already use the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Now, I do most of my eReading through my kindle app on my iPad mini. So, I am as far away from the Nook as I can be. However, I can appreciate the desire to shake things up, and I do love my Samsung Galaxy S4 phone. So I am cautiously optimistic that this little tablet will be an awesome eReader (if only because I don't like there only being one go-to device on the market).

What about you guys, are you interested in buying the new Galaxy Tab Nook? Or are you sticking with your tried and true eReaders?