Barnes & Noble, Samsung join forces for new Nook tablet

After nearly two years without releasing a new tablet, Barnes & Noble on Wednesday unveiled the $179 Galaxy Tab 4 Nook, a tablet co-branded with Samsung.

The new Nook is essentially a clone of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 4, both featuring seven-inch touch screens as well as front- and back-facing cameras. The major difference is the Nook sells content through Barnes & Noble’s digital store, instead of Google Play as most Android devices do. The Galaxy Tab 4 Nook is on sale now online and at Barnes & Noble stores.

Barnes & Noble began selling Nook tablets in late 2012 to keep up with its online rival Amazon.com. But its efforts quickly foundered, and by last summer Barnes & Noble announced it would no longer make Nook tablets on its own because of how much money they were losing. Now, Barnes & Noble is hoping the Galaxy Tab 4 Nook can compete against Amazon’s line of Kindle Fire tablets.

But Barnes & Noble’s rivalry with Amazon extends beyond e-books. This summer, Barnes & Noble partnered with Google to offer same-day deliveries in select markets on physical books purchased online -- a service that was already offered by Amazon.

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