Barnes & Noble Making Moves to Counteract Kindle

All the hype about the Amazon Kindle must be getting under Barnes & Noble’s skin. In the past few weeks, they’ve unrolled a series of changes that appear to be aimed at bringing some customers back into stores or at least get them thinking about the Barnes & Noble brand more often.

First, they released a Barnes & Noble iPhone App that allowed users to search for books, find the nearest store location, and even take a picture of an item to have the App find it in Barnes & Noble’s product list.

Then they released a free e-reader program for mobile devices like the iPhone and BlackBerry, as well as Macs and PCs. The corresponding Barnes & Noble e-book store has pricing comparable to the Amazon Kindle e-book store. You also get 6 free e-books (classics like Sense & Sensibility and Dracula) just for downloading the App and creating an account with their e-book store.

They’re also teaming up with Plastic Logic to provide the Barnes & Noble eBookstore for the e-book reader they plan to produce with Plastic Logic.

In a bid to counteract the “Kindle as textbook” marketing Amazon has been doing, Barnes & Noble also introduced lower-priced textbooks and free shipping on all textbooks. You even get free shipping when selling your books back to them.

They have also rolled out free wireless internet access in their stores, indicating a push to get people in the store. This is a smart move, as I have a hard time leaving Barnes & Noble without buying something, even though I have a Kindle and would prefer to read the books digitally. Don’t underestimate the power of the impulse buy.

All these initiatives combined make it seem like Barnes & Noble is a little worried by the popularity of the Kindle.