10 ways that Apple inspired the Nook

The greatest influencer of the fledging eReader market is not Amazon.com, Google, or even Barnes & Noble… In fact, it’s the least involved company there is: Apple.

Despite Apple’s lack of any tangible presence in the eReader market (if you don’t count the iPhone, that is), Apple has done more to shape the way eReaders are made and eBooks are sold than anyone else. Steve Jobs has long denied interest in entering the eReader market, but despite keeping his distance, it’s obvious he’s made a long-lasting impact.

Barnes & Noble recently unveiled the Nook, its response to Amazon’s hugely-publicized Kindle. While the Kindle was a promising turn in the fortune of the eReader, many reviewers believe that the Nook is so close to perfecting the eReader that it almost seems like an Apple product.

ZDNet goes as far as to say that the Nook features “a curvy industrial design that would make Apple engineers proud.”

The Nook owes so much of its existence to Apple that one might accuse Barnes & Noble of stealing engineers from Steve Jobs under the cover of night. Here are ten profound ways that Apple inspired the Nook:

How can the book industry save itself? Freedom.

Books are an endangered species, teetering on the edge of extinction. You probably wouldn’t guess that, judging from the rows full of them at Barnes & Noble, but pages and traditional publishers are dying at the gripping hand of greed.

So what’s the solution? Links. Links can save the book industry, and for that matter, the e-book industry as well.

How? Well, sponsored links, actually, unobtrusive related text.

Sony, which had previously been lagging behind Amazon’s Kindular success in the great e-book race, may have recently released a svelte new touch-screen competitor. But it, like its competition, isn’t going to save either the e-book or the non-e-book industry (take note that “non-e” will soon be the same as “none”).