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To: Tom Kearney who wrote (77428)	9/15/1999 9:59:00 PM
From: Bill Harmond	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

Jeez, what an OLD fart!!

To: Tom Kearney who wrote (77428)	9/15/1999 10:53:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

By Monica Summers NEW YORK, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Book retailer Barnes & Noble Inc. <BKS.N> said on Wednesday it has begun selling NuvoMedia's hand-held electronic book, betting that its bookstore customers will accept the alternative to printed books once they have a chance to see the device for themselves. After seeing successful sales through its online business Barnesandnoble.com Inc.'s <BNBN.O> Web site (http://www.bn.com) the parent company said it decided to "test out" the device in 31 stores across the United States. The 22-ounce eBook sells for $329 and holds 4,000 pages of text and graphics, the equivalent of 10 or so paperback novels, allowing users to effectively carry a small library with them. The device measures six inches by seven inches. "Inherently we're changing something that people have been doing for 500 years," said Marcus Colombano, director of marketing for the Mountain View, Calif.-based NuvoMedia. "All of a sudden people are now given the opportunity to read an electronic book and it's strange to read an electronic book and so people are apprehensive about that," he said. "We've found that once a reader gets a Rocket eBook in their hands ... they're sold," Colombano said. But analysts who follow the hand-held computer market say the new line of "e-book" gizmos, which allow users to read books on a paperback-sized computer, have so far failed to grip consumers the way personal organizers like Palm devices have. There are several other so-called e-books on the market including devices from Middletown, Pa.-based Everybook Inc., Glassbook of Waltham, Mass., and Menlo Park, Calif.-based Softbook Press Inc. All let users to download literature from the Web and install it into the computer, but analysts consider NuvoMedia's Rocket eBook the best of the lot. The Rocket eBook gives readers fingertip access to electronic magazines and newspapers, and also allows them to jot down notes, underline passages and look up word definitions. Barnes & Noble said there are more than 1,400 fiction and nonfiction titles available for the eBook, including many of the most recent bestsellers. Electronic book titles in software form can be downloaded electronically from the Barnesandnoble.com site and range in price from 99 cents to $25, the price of most hardcover books. In addition, more than 1,000 free titles are also available from NuvoMedia's online bookstore (www.rocket-library.com), and the company has deals with several trade book publishers such as Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and St. Martin's Press. But despite its positive reviews, analysts said electronic books have failed to catch on with a wide audience. "Nobody's using them," said Seamus McAteer, director of Web Technology Strategies at New York-based market research firm Jupiter Communications. "There's an untapped gap in the market there for a device that's more of a knowledge store rather than just a productivity device," he said, comparing electronic books to hand-held organizers like the Palm that allow people to store a wealth of personal information. "Extending a productivity device to do that is a tough extension, and I don't think current hand-held technologies are really up to the task," he said. McAteer said that overall lack of content is what has contributed to the e-book's fledgling popularity. "Publishers are interested to an extent, and certainly have a big catalog of material," he said. The technology suffers from a classic chicken-and-egg dilemma. Most publishers remain reluctant to adopt the new format in addition to existing hardcover, paperback and audio book formats until a larger market exists. Earlier this month, NuvoMedia received $16.7 million in a third round of private financing from backers including Cisco Systems Inc. <CSCO.O>, venture capital firm Mayfield Fund and Barnes & Noble, which had previously ...