I’m at the Barnes & Noble store on 17th street for the announcement of a new ereader. Waiting.
Here we go: William Lynch, CEO presenting:
Captured over 25% of the ebook market. Nook Color is the best selling Andfroid tablet in the US and second only to the Ipad in overall tablet sales. Nook is an ecosystem and this has driven their explosive growth. Over 8 million libraries created using the Nook reading app. Have direct relationships with over 50.000 publishes. PubIt is the fastest growing part of their digital program. Over 1 million apps downloaded which is far beyond their expectations. We are leading digital reading innovation: first to launch digital lending; first and only company that allows readers to browse in-store ebooks; Nook Kids is largest children’s digital bookstore; leading the industry in magazines with 1.5 million subs in 6 months, leading seller in digital magazines for several publications, have more digital sales than any other company; Nook Color is enormous hit and is the best priced tablet in the market.
Simple, pure reading experience is what a lot of people want and need. Product for those who are turned off by buttons, keyboards and complexity. Simple touch reader with e-ink screen. Easiest to use reader on the market. No buttons, everythng is done with touch. 7.5 ounces and form factor specifically engineered for a reader’s hand. 2 month battery life per charge. Pearl display. Smoother page turns and significantly minimized flashing compared to all other e-ink units. $139.
Compared to Kindle 3: no buttons and optimized interface makes it faster and easier to use; same size display as Kindle with 10% less size and bulk; countoured form factor so it is shaped to the hand, uses soft-touch paint; twice the battery life of the Kindle; Kindle uses reflash to change pages and until now this was the only option to address the ghosting effect, the new Nook is 85% faster.
Available for pre-order and will start shipping on June 10.
Jamie Iannone, President of digital products division: 2Gb of onboard storage plus expandable memory. Pearl display. Touch screen uses infra-red technology. Design goal was that technology should disappear to make reading as much like a book as possible. Will display how many pages left in a chapter. 6 different fonts with 7 different sizes. The shop screen will give readers recommendations based on what you are currently reading. WiFi but no 3G. Will connect automatically to AT&T hotspots. Can see recommendations from friends on the home screen. Next month will launch MyNook.com which will be a personalized site for readers. Simplest ereader ever created.
Questions: WiFi is the dominent share in readers so went with that also helped keep the cost down. 800 MHz TI Omap chip. In hearing from customers battery life was always 1 or 2 in requirements. Two months is based on 1/2 hour reading per day with WiFi off. Nook apps only available on the Nook Color – this is a pure and simple device. Uses Android 2.1. Expandable up to 32Gb. Old Nook device will be discontinued. Don’t expect it to cannibalize Nook Color sales because is aimed at a different market segment. Research suggests that some people will buy both products for different members of family. In next 3 to 5 years physical books will continue to dominate the market. Store sales are not declining. For touch screen worked with Neo Node. Digital revenue is fastest growing part of B&N revenue, by far. No ads on Nooks. Surprised at how well Apps have done. Store managers by slightly less than 1/3 of their books regionally.
This looks like what Amazon should have put out originally, to me. It may capture a lot of people who are presently “on the fence” about ebook reading devices.
Are they ever going to release these things in Canada?
I’d like to see how it stacks up to the Sony PRS-650 (although, since it’s not really offered at retail anymore it may not be a fair comparison). Still, I kinda’ want one based on past experience with B&N.
“Fast book scanning with Fast Page”? Sounds interesting.
No landscape and no web browser? I think I’ll survive.
“No ads on Nooks. ” Best feature yet.
I may have to jump ship to Nook if Amazon sails completely down ad line. All the rest is noise.
It will be very interesting to wait and see a side by side comparison and teardowns of the Nook Touch and the Kobo Touch. They sound quite similar in hardware features. – Not that I’ll have any choice in Canada.
Basically it’s a Kindle plus touch minus the dopey keyboard and with a faster processor and better software. All good. I wonder if they will offer a Kindle trade-in program?
I assume this is the standard 6″ screen that almost all eReaders seem to be stuck at. The sweet spot for me would be a 7 or 8″ screen. Not as massive as the huge Kindle DX but bigger than the current norm.
I still don’t like the fact that B&N DRM uses credit card numbers. I know that you can’t find the credit card number from the book, but if you change credit cards, it could cause problems.
Paul – What about Searches, dictionary, notes and highlighting? If they’re keeping it as simple as possible, are they dropping those for the Nook 2 ?
Paul, I just read the answer to my question at Forbes:
“Barnes & Noble Inc. executives said the new device lets readers look up words, highlight passages, search and adjust font size. It weighs 7.5 ounces…”
If they don’t have as many bugs as my (appreciated) NookColor does, this will be ultra competitive…
What about the software experience? Does it allow folder creation to organize your own sideloaded books? Does it have a file browser for book selection as well as a proprietary database?
Good question, Jeff. I certainly hope you can sideload. My only experience has been with Sony Readers and pretty much sideload is the only game in town. And with it, more options on where to get ebooks from.
Neither this device nor the one from Kobo brings anything radically new to the table. Worse, it appears no new screen eink technology will be released this year, at least commercially. Nor has anybody broken the $100 barrier, suggesting that this will prove difficult to achieve while remaining profitable hardware wise.
Ironically this suggests era of B&W eink devices might be drawing to a close. They will continue to exist but attention will increasingly shift elsewhere, to LCD devices, tablets and up and coming new technologies.
gous, except the Kobo Wireless reader at $99 (and the occasional discount could drive it even cheaper).
As for LCD coming to dominate (which is kind of funny when just saw two new eInk devices released), the 1–2 month battery life, wide viewing angle, and (at least perceived) widespread preference for non-lit displays will be hard to overcome. I think B&N is right in saying that there are really two markets out there.
Unless you were merely pointing out that devices won’t get any better than this and therefore the market is going to be less exciting (in other words, reduced reasons for people upgrading devices). You may be correct, but I’m willing to bet that gadget lust and clever engineers will continue to drive interest.
Questions: “Old Nook device will be discontinued. ” Does this mean no more updates or improvements for my dear old original classic nook?
Question: the new and similar Kobo ereader just released can do landscape and pan and zoom on a PDF. What about the nook for this feature?
I use my nook a lot, eink is much kinder to my old and aging eyes. Not interested in reading on LCD or tablet although would be nice. What ever happened to the notion of having dual screens so you could switch from eink reading to LCD? Qui-Pixel (may not have the company name right) was working on that a few years back.
No keyboard, touch only — I’m one who prefers buttons and a screen with no fingerprints
Wifi only, no 3G — No Wifi at home, closest hotspot is 40 minutes away. With 3G, I can still buy books in bed.
Recommendations from friends on my Home Page — NO! I don’t really care what anyone else is reading and I sure don’t want their opinions taking up space on my Home Page
My favorite:
Two months battery life is based on HALF HOUR reading per day, with the Wifi off —- now that made me laugh. What avid reader only reads for a half hour a day? What happens when you read for 5-6 hours every day? That “selling point” is going to come back to bite them in the butt when people buy one without reading the fine print and find out their battery life is significantly less than advertised.
All that being said, I am very happy that the Nook is doing so well. It will keep B&N afloat and continues to keep Amazon on its toes.