Barnes & Noble is playing a rapid game of catch up to Amazon in the Apple App Store. The big brick-and-mortar bookseller came out with an application for the iPhone and iPod touch today that lets people browse and buy books, DVDs and CDs -- much like Amazon's shopping app for iPhone. Barnes & Noble's app also has a feature that lets people snap a photo of a book cover with their iPhone camera and quickly get product details and pricing. That's a lot like what Snaptell does -- a company that Amazon just acquired.
"Using the iPhone camera, just snap a photo of the front cover and within seconds get product details, editorial reviews, and customer ratings – even find and reserve a copy in the store closest to you," B&N says in today's announcement.
Amazon, of course, has released a shopping app as well as a Kindle electronic book app for iPhone, and has been making other moves in the mobile market, buying Lexcycle, maker of popular iPhone book app Stanza, and mobile image search startup Snaptell.
Barnes & Noble says its new app also includes video interviews with authors, event calendars with celebrity book signings and readings, directions to Barnes & Noble stores, and information on which stores have cafes and Wi-Fi access. The B&N app is currently ranked No. 2 in free book apps on iTunes, after Kindle.
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