Publishing, technology, and business publications are all abuzz with the news that Microsoft has purchased 17 percent of a newly formed unit of Barnes and Noble (consisting of the Nook and college bookstore markets). Microsoft is investing 605 million of its cash over five years ostensibly to compete with Amazon, Google, and Apple in the e-book world.

Microsoft is coming very late to the tablet, e-reader, e-book industry. But the timing of its entry undoubtedly has much to do with the fact that the giant software company will launch its new Microsoft 8 Operating System this fall, which features touch screen technology, the kind of technology now used on the iPad. It is also a time when downloadable college textbooks are coming into their own, and it seems the general shift in publishing continues increasingly towards e-books. "We are at a cusp of a revolution in reading," says Andy Lees, president of Microsoft. Actually the revolution has been off and running for some time, but it is good they are paying attention now.

At one time Amazon controlled 90 percent of the e-book market. Google and Apple, with
Android tablets, Nooks, and iPads, have bitten into that monopoly, and now Amazon controls just 60 percent and Barnes and Noble controls 27 percent, with Apple coming in third. But Apple offers so much more on its iPad than just e-books - music, films, TV, games, and a myriad of applications, so that their dominance or lack thereof in the e-book market is not of great importance to the corporation. Now with Microsoft getting into the tablet game, it may be that the Nook will offer much more varied possibilities for entertainment and education than it currently does.

Also of note is the fact that, given the ruling against Apple and the agency model publishers for setting e-book prices, it has been feared by publishers that Amazon was about to heat up the e-book pricing wars. With its infusion of cash and prospects of offering better technology, Barnes and Noble may provide more competition for Amazon than has been the case until now so that it may not feel it has quite the free reign as was expected.

The partnership makes a great amount of sense and has plenty to recommend it for both companies. Barnes and Noble will become a more well funded competitor and will have access to global markets currently beyond its reach. It will produce Nook applications for all smartphones and tablets that will use the new Microsoft Windows 8 Touch Screen Operating System. A touch screen version of Microsoft 8 will become available on all Nooks going forward. As for Microsoft, it will now have an ally in the area of technology, retail, and media that it has not previously been able to establish. It will also be able to develop stores such as Apple has within the Barnes and Noble stores scattered throughout the nation, a brick and mortar advantage Amazon does not have to date.

Hopefully for authors, publishers, and readers, all this will lead to more varied and less expensive alternatives in e-reading devices and in e-books so that, in the end, more and more people will be reading more and more books and other publications.