Look! It’s The Hook Of The Nook

The uneasy relationship between digital delivery and physical stores has a steadily improving history. In 2004, as its Virgin Megastores were struggling, parent company Virgin funded Virgin Electronics, which quickly disappeared in 2005 in the shadow of the iPod. (My colleague Stephen Baker is quoted in this CNET-authored obituary.) Nintendo’s Wi-Fi connection took it to the next level, providing connectivity in retail stores for the Nintendo DS, but didn’t provide much differentiation for retailers. And while Apple provides free Wi-Fi in its stores, it instead partnered with Starbucks to offer a customized iTunes store home page that offered lists of recent songs for purchase playing in its coffee shops.

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