Nook: Barnes & Noble’s Kindle Killer?
Barnes & Noble has come out with their own eBook reader to compete against the Kindle and it was officially announced today. It is called Nook.
Here are the main features the Nook has over the Kindle.
- The Nook has Wi-Fi which besides being a fast connection also is enable to allow full book browsing while on the B&N wireless network in store.
- The Nook has touch screen navigation and a color LCD for library browsing and other display and navigation options.
- The Nook has an expanded memory slot to increase the storage space if necessary (or for managing sets of books).
- PDFs can be read natively (Kindle has to have the PDF converted – unless a hack is applied).
- Custom images for the “screen saver” (Kindle also needs a hack to do this).
- Multiple device sync for books including iPhone/iPod Touch, Blackberry, and Computer (Kindle only has iPhone/iPod Touch and Computer).
- Digital book lending is possible which could possibly allow for library ebook borrowing systems.
- The battery on the Nook is replaceable and there are some harware customization options (like colored backplates).
- The Nook runs an Android OS which could allow for many future development options.
The e-Ink displays are almost identical so the readability will be the same but this is true of almost all eReaders that use e-Ink technology so the difference in devices really does come down to features.
The Nook also has AT&T 3G built in just like the Kindle has the Sprint 3G so depending on your area, one wireless service may be a better option than another.
The only real winner here for the Kindle is the battery life (14 days vs 10 days) and the backing of Amazon… but the book prices are about the same and currently Barnes & Noble is boasting an opening digital library larger than Amazon’s so it will be interesting to see how that aspect shapes up.
The price is $259 and will be available in November. Barnes & Noble stores will be putting up displays in the next couple days so you can check out the device yourself and pre-order one if you like. That is also an advantage for the Nook – the ability to check it out before you buy it.
This device looks very cool and has many of the features that some Kindle owners have complained about lacking (which would be why they are on this device). It has good bookstore backing and already has accessories. I see no reason this device couldn’t outshine or at the very least provide excellent competition for the Kindle – and in technology, competition is a good thing for customers.
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those things all sound pretty interesting. as a kindle 1 and 2 owner, i have to say it’s interesting. but unlike the rest of the world out there I almost never go to barnes and noble, and never visit their site to buy books. and no matter what anyone says about having a bigger library, if a publisher or author doesn’t want it to be on the kindle or any other e-reading device it’s not gonna legally be on there.
for me, i read the books, so the kindle does all i need it to do. I don’t need to use it to check my email, browse the web, look at pdf files or whatever. I have my iphone and computer to do that stuff.
I do like my Kindle. It does what I need (you can see a lot of that on previous Kindle articles).
The PDF support is popular for technical manuals that often come with their print versions in PDF format (and school documents).
Obviously there are more ways to get books now though and that’s pretty cool. A Kindle can load a B&N book but unfortunately the Nook can’t load a book bought from Amazon – but I assume that will change some day. Sony is using the ePub format as well which is usable on pretty much all devices as it has become an open standard. The more options the better.
There’s another thing Kindle has going over the Nook: an international service. That may not be very important for Americans, but it is for us peeps overseas/travellers.