Nook Teams With NY Times To Battle Amazon’s Kindle

Although we don’t have sales figures, Barnes & Noble’s Nook eReader and tablet line appears to be holding its own against Kindle’s fiery onslaught. This morning the company announced a device promotion with the New York Times to battle its rival:

[C]ustomers who purchase a one-year NOOK subscription to The New York Times will receive a top-rated NOOK Simple Touch at no cost or the award-winning NOOK Color for just $99. Barnes & Noble customers can take advantage of this special promotion available at one of Barnes & Noble’s more than 700 bookstores and online at www.nook.com/nyt through March 9, 2012. 

Accordingly if you subscribe to the Nook edition of the NY Times ($19.99 per month) you can get a either Nook Simple Touch for free or a Nook Color for $99.

The deal provides access to the Nook edition of the New York Times, as well as web access:

Customers will have access to the NOOK edition of The New York Times, plus all their favorite content on the go, through Barnes & Noble’s critically acclaimed devices. In addition to automatically delivering The Times directly to the customers’ NOOK device each day, NOOK subscribers will also receive unlimited access to The Times’ award-winning website, NYTimes.com, including regular news updates, opinions, blogs, video, interactive graphics and more. The NOOK subscription to The New York Times is $19.99 per month for full digital access on NOOK and NYTimes.com.

It sounds like this would not allow people who also access the New York Times through its non-Nook applications, something that’s offered through deals with home delivery or if purchased separately.

The Nook Color has received generally more positive reviews than competitor Kindle Fire. Kindle Fire and Nook Color are the two most successful Android tablets on the market currently.

Barnes & Noble is considering spinning off Nook into a separate business, according to a variety of published reports.