So here comes Barnes & Noble to the e-reader market just in time for the holidays but just as estimates come out that 10 million electronic book readers will be sold worldwide in 2010.
The Nook eBook reader is actually Plastic Logic’s QUE eBook reader to compete with rival Amazon’s Kindle line. The device, which has a six-inch display, is the same size and price as the standard version of Amazon’s Kindle and will ship in November. You can pre-order now.
Specs: 8.5 x 11 inches, less than a third of an inch thick, weighes 11.2 ounces, a 3.5 inch color touchscreen LCD at the bottom of the display to browse through book covers, 2GB of storage (about 1,500 eBooks), and battery life of up to ten days without recharging with wireless off. You can also use it as an MP3 player to listen to audio books or music. The nook holds about 26 hours of audio and a has a built-in mono speaker as well as a stereo headphone jack.
As for availability of book titles to buy and download (via WiFi and through AT&Ts 3G network), B&N plans on offer out of the gate more than one million e-books for sale when the Nook is released. Amazon has roughly a third of the inventory of B&N (so, take that).
But in one of the stupidest moves we’ve seen in some time, B&N has decided not to sell the Nook through it’s more than 700 brick-and-mortar stores. You’ll be able to play with a demo unit but not actually buy one to take home. Booksellers will order a device for in-store customers from the BN.com website to be shipped to their home. For whatever reason – small stock, security, whatever – it defeats the purpose of having a demo unit customers can play with and end the experience with no instant gratification. Dumb beyond belief!
One Comment-
vix
Oct 29
Great post!
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