Barnes & Noble launches iPhone, iTouch app

DIGITAL: Bookstore chain taps into smart phone popularity

By Danny King -- Video Business, 6/29/2009

JUNE 29 | DIGITAL: Barnes & Noble is allowing customers to search for and buy books, videos and other media products through their Apple iPhones.

The company's new applications allow existing members of Barnes & Noble's Web site to buy books using their iPhones, Barnes & Noble said in a statement. Among other services, iPod Touch camera users also can snap a photo of a book's front cover and be sent product details and editorial reviews of the book.

"We designed the B&N Bookstore app based on the tremendous growth we’ve seen over the past 12 months in our mobile traffic and customer adoption," Barnes & Noble.com president William Lynch said in the statement.

The largest U.S. bookstore chain, Barnes & Noble is joining such content distributors as Netflix and DirecTV in supporting applications that make it easier for iPhone owners to buy content. Barnes & Noble is looking to gain business from a North American user base of so-called smart phones, including Research In Motion's BlackBerry as well as iPhones, that's expected to almost quadruple to about 240 million in 2013 from 62 million last year, according to Parks Associates.

Barnes & Noble said last month its fiscal first-quarter loss widened by 22% from a year earlier after same-store sales dropped 5.7%.

Earlier this month, Apple said it sold more than 1 million units of iPhone's latest 3GS phone during the first three days it was available to the public, with more than 6 million people downloading the newest iPhone 3.0 software in one week.