The holiday shopping season wasn't merry for Barnes & Noble's Nook division, which experienced plummeting sales of the Nook e-reader as well as content and accessories for the device.
Samsung is moving deeper into e-book and multimedia sales with Barnes & Noble, with which it jointly built a custom Nook tablet that's available now for US$179.
Google announced that book buyers in three metropolitan areas in the U.S. will be able to order books from local Barnes & Noble stores and get them delivered the same day with Google Shopping Express, the company's fledgling online shopping and delivery service.
A Microsoft portfolio manager and his business partner are charged with insider trading that profited them $393,125.
Apple pushed back on e-book price-fixing remedies proposed by the Department of Justice and 33 state attorneys general with, among other things, an implied threat that it could yank Amazon's Kindle app from its iPad and iPhone App Store.
Microsoft has gotten next to nothing from its $300 million investment in Barnes & Noble, analysts said, but it may reap some rewards as it prepares to ship smaller tablets.
Microsoft has gotten little from a 2012 investment of $US300 million with Barnes & Noble, analysts said, but it's poised to reap some rewards as it and its partners start to ship smaller tablets.
Barnes & Noble is adding the Google Play store to HD versions of its Nook tablet, in a bid to counter slowing sales of its devices.
Amazon.com's application for top-level domain strings, including for ".book" and ".read," has come under attack from publishing industry groups and competitor Barnes & Noble.
Apple and Samsung Electronics led the tablet market in the fourth quarter of 2012, but new entrant Microsoft did not make it to the top five with its Surface tablet.
Apple retained its stranglehold on mobile shopping over the two-day stretch of Thanksgiving and Black Friday in the U.S., IBM said.
Barnes & Noble has removed PIN pad devices from all of its nearly 700 stores nationwide as a precaution after detecting evidence of tampering with the devices at 63 of its stores in eight states.
Tablet sales at 18.1 million units during the third quarter were somewhat lower than expected, but stronger-than-expected demand during the rest of the year will give the market a boost, according to market research company IDC.
With the <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9222461/Cool_stuff_Your_2011_holiday_tech_gift_guide">holiday season in full force</a>, a lot of gift-givers are going to be considering one of the new color e-readers that have been introduced recently: <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9221888/Amazon_s_Kindle_Fire_misfires">Amazon's Kindle Fire</a>, the Kobo Vox and <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9221898/Nook_Tablet_Hands_on_with_Barnes_Noble_s_alternative_to_the_Kindle_Fire">Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet</a>.
Amazon's Kindle Fire is expected to take nearly 14% of the global tablet market in the fourth quarter, placing it second behind Apple's iPad with its 65 per cent share, according to an analysis by market research firm IHS.