Just in time for the impending holiday season, Barnes & Noble comes out with the “Nook”
By Gabe Perna
Over the past year, no market in technology has received as much movement as e-readers. From the success of Amazon’s Kindle to the emergence of several competitors, everyone seems to be getting in on the action. Sony has its e-reader, Google has Google Books and now the world’s largest bookseller, Barnes & Noble, has put its hat in the increasingly diluted ring.
The device, called The Nook, will be powered by Android 1.5. It’ll sport the e-Ink text display, have a 3.5 inch color touch screen interface for browsing and ordering AND most impressively, offer a sharing function that allows users to loan books out to computers/mobile phones/etc with the appropriate software (making it the first e-reader to do such a thing). The Nook will make its retail debut in November, right in time for the holiday rush.
Industry experts, already expect it to make a serious threat to the Kindle crown. Allen Weiner, an industry analyst for Gartner, wrote in his blog, “Anyway you slice Barnes and Noble’s announcement, The Nook is a game changer for the current market and one that will force Amazon’s hand even with Amazon’s recent release of an international Kindle.”
The Nook will be available for $259 – not too hefty of a price for all of its capabilities. It’ll use AT&T for 3G service and will come with free WiFi. Its internal memory can store up to 1500 e-Books, with an ability to be expanded via the MicroSD slot to become limitless.
William J Lynch, President of Barnes & Noble.com said: "We asked our customers what they wanted in an e-Book reader, and specifically designed nook to be the most full-featured, fun, stylish and easy-to-use e-Book reader on the market."
Whether it can take over the Kindle’s vice grip on the market remains to be seen. For now, it certainly has all the bells and whistles to battle the Kindle in terms of capabilities.
