You’re absolutely right. I should have mentioned the Borders-Sony alliance which I do know about. I guess that’s what happens when I’m writing blog pasts at 5 a.m..

I have a Borders 40 minutes away, but I’m much more of a Barnes & Noble customer. I really wonder how successful the Borders-Sony partnership is doing.

I’m sure there’s probably some wiggle room in that partnership agreement if Barnes & Noble came calling to Sony.

I really do wonder what Barnes & Noble is thinking and planning regarding the Kindle. As I mentioned in my original post, Barnes & Noble management are smart businesspeople. If Kindle sales continue to go up, they’ll have to figure out an answer.

Maybe they’ll go out and make some acquisitions in the eBook industry - DailyLit, Fictionwise, etc.! Who knows? (Caveat, I worked on the PR for DailyLit’s launch).

One final note, and I’ll need to blog about this in the future. Why am I a Barnes & Noble customer over Borders? The simple fact is that Borders’ loyalty program leaves a lot to be desired. It’s based on printing out coupons and keeping track of when those coupons expire. I’m far too busy to do that. I like knowing what my discount will be with my Barnes & Noble member card.

Could Sony rethink things and go with B&N as well or instead? It all depends on the terms of their agreement with Borders. I do think having the device in more outlets would be good for Sony and perhaps B&N would come up with a new way of helping promote it.

The fact that B&N, the country’s largest brick-and-mortar book retailer, doesn’t have a reader or alliance like this of their own is quite odd. Even if they can’t get the Sony-branded reader into their stores maybe it would make sense for B&N to work with Sony on a private label version of the device that’s prominently branded as a Barnes & Noble product. That’s something Borders hasn’t done and it would help provide differentiation, particularly if B&N could come up with some unique new features to add to the mix.

The more I think about it, if I’m B&N I’m on the phone with Sony right now saying, “hey, go ahead and continue your relationship with Borders. But let’s work together on a next generation Reader with wireless capabilities to take on Amazon…” I’m not sure if that would be enough to avoid whatever non-compete language might exist in the current Borders/Sony agreement but it’s worth thinking about.