B&N announces Nook Tablet, lowers NC and Nook ST prices no comments
Barnes & Noble today unveiled the Nook Tablet, which will be competing directly with the Kindle Fire tablet from Amazon. The Nook Tablet will be priced at $249, and B&N will be lowering the price of the Nook Color to $199 and the Nook Simple Touch ereader to $99. 
The Nook Tablet will feature streaming HD movies and TV programming via Netflix and Hulu Plus, which is a larger pool of content than Amazon’s instant video service that the Kindle Fire will have access to. B&N also will be launching a Nook Comics store that will be dedicated to graphic novels.
Stylistically, the Nook Tablet appears to feature the same elegant design as the Nook Color, and will also feature a 7-inch VividView display from LG. The Nook Tablet will be powered by a 1 GHz dual-core processor and comes with 16 GB of internal memory. Additional storage space can be added via a microSD card slot. Battery life is said to be up to nine hours of video or 11.5 hours of reading. The Nook Tablet weighs in at 14.1 ounces — slightly less than the Kindle Fire’s 14.6 ounces.
Some of the other specs of the Nook Tablet:
- Dimensions: 8.1 x 5 x .48 inches.
- 7-inch VividView Touchscreen with IPS; 1024 x 600, 169 PPI.
- Processor: TI OMAP4 Dual-core with 1GB RAM.
- Email client with unified inbox.
- Parental controls to disable web browser.
- Video formats: MP4, Adobe Flash Player format, 3GP, 3G2 MKV, WEBM (Video Codecs: H.264, MPEG-4, H.263, VP8).
- Built-in microphone; this will be supported by new Nook Kids books with a new Read and Record feature.
It was also announced that “Barnes & Noble’s largest software update ever” will be coming to the Nook Color in early December. Finally, with this update, B&N will address one of the most requested features for the Nook Color — the ability to read ebooks in landscape mode. Netflix will also be coming to the Nook Color, with Hulu Plus to follow in the near future. 
Altogether, the update will include over 100 enhancements.
There is also a new software update for the Nook Simple Touch ereader that is available today. You can manually download v1.1.0 now or wait for it to be pushed out over the Wi-Fi connection within the next few weeks.
B&N also had a couple of announcements pertaining to its Nook platform in general: Beginning next month B&N will enable Nook Book and Nook App gifting from its website. Customers will also be able to apply their Barnes & Noble gift cards to purchases made while shopping at B&N.com from the Nook Color and Nook Tablet.
The Nook Tablet is available now for pre-order for $249. It is expected to be in stores on Nov 17, which is about the same time as the Kindle Fire will be out. Yesterday a few new retail partners for the Nook ereaders were announced; TigerDirect, CompUSA and Fry’s will all soon be offering the Nook ereaders.
Nook Tablet vs Kindle Fire
Barnes & Noble has not only introduced a strong new entry into the tablet market today but with the accompanying announcements pertaining to the Nook Color and Nook Touch ereader has strengthened its ereader platform as a whole.
Neither the Nook Tablet or the Kindle Fire is out just yet, but looking at the published specs makes for some interesting comparisons:
- Pricing: The Kindle Fire is $199 vs the Nook Tablet’s price of $249.
- Styling: The Kindle Fire looks like just another tablet, while the Nook Tablet looks like a fashion accessory. Seriously, I think Amazon’s ereaders need some improvement in the Looking Good Department.
- Size and weight: The Kindle Fire (7.5 x 4.7 x 0.45 inches) is slightly smaller than the Nook Tablet (8.1 x 5 x .48 inches), but is a little heavier — 14.6 ounces vs 14.1 ounces for the Nook Tablet.
- Battery life: The Nook Tablet gets better battery life: 11.5 hours reading, 9 hours video vs 8 hours reading and 7.5 hours video for the Kindle Fire.
- Storage: The Nook Tablet has 16GB of internal storage plus a microSD card slot; the Kindle Fire comes with 8GB of internal memory.
- Content: Personally I still like the Kindle Store best, but I also like the Nook Book store, which has improved by leaps and bounds. You are still more likely to find a contemporary ebook title at the Kindle Store, especially if it is farther out in the long tail. The Kindle Fire will also have access to ebooks from Kobo and Wattpad via the apps in the Appstore for Android. When it comes to streaming video, the combination of Netflix and Hulu Plus mean more video content will be available for the Nook. But these are both subscription services. Existing Amazon Prime members will have over 10,000 movies and TV programs to stream at no additional charge. Prime members can also read 5,000 Kindle books for free that are part of the Kindle Lending Library. Prime membership costs $79 per year and includes free two-day shipping on eligible items sold at Amazon. UPDATE: Amazon has announced that Netflix will be available for the Kindle Fire at the Appstore for Android when the tablet ships. Hulu Plus, Pandora, ESPN ScoreCenter and Comics by comiXology will also be available for the Fire.
- Other features: The Kindle Fire will be a good choice if you purchase your digital music through Amazon as you can store it and stream it using the Amazon Cloud Drive. To some extent Amazon’s cloud storage might make up for the smaller onboard storage of the Kindle Fire for many users. For web browsing Amazon’s Silk browser looks promising and should result in a faster browsing experience.
Both the Kindle Fire and the Nook Tablet look good and both have their pros and cons. It will be interesting to have both tablets side by side to see the relative performance. The Nook Tablet looks to be a very strong contender with some stronger specs, although it is pricier. Actually, at $199 and with the addition of Netflix and Hulu Plus the Nook Color has strengthened its position against the Kindle Fire. For those who do a lot of shopping at Amazon a Kindle Fire plus a Prime membership will probably be the winning combination.
P.S. I have to say that I am not a big fan of 7-inch tablets. While they are very portable, I find that the larger 10-inch screen format is better for many of the things I want to do with a tablet. On the other hand a 10-inch tablet is often a little too large to be really portable. I have played with demo units of the 8.9-inch Samsung Tab and I think this screen size is a nice compromise.
The rumor mill has had it that Amazon is planning a 10-inch version of the Kindle Fire for early next year. A few days ago DigiTimes reported that the latest word from its sources is that Amazon will instead launch an 8.9-inch Kindle Fire in 2011 with larger sizes to possibly follow in 2012. If you also feel that the 7-inchers are somewhat less than satisfying this is good news and it may be worth waiting for a slightly larger Kindle Fire.
