Looks like Amazon’s tablet effort lit a fire under Barnes & Noble.
Amazon’s Fire tablet isn’t even on sale but the company has had pre-orders coming out of its ears since it announced the $199 device. Now, it seems Barnes & Noble wants in on some of the action. According to leaked marketing documents, B&N has plans for a Nook tablet and will be announcing it in the coming days.
You can never count Sony out. Just when it looked like the founding member of the big three among ereaders was fading from the market; they come out with a really compelling E Ink ebook reader that’s ballpark competitively priced at $149. The Sony Reader PRS-T1 is a 6″ E Ink Pearl reader that’s compatible with ePUB and PDF files. Sony was the first to come out with an IR-based touch control scheme that doesn’t interfere with E Ink’s clarity and contrast, and the PRS-T1 is the latest example.
Barnes & Noble is extending the availability of its top selling eReader tablet Nook Color and E Ink Pearl Nook Simple Touch by bringing them to Target stores across the country as well as Target.com. Devices and accessories have arrived at Target, starting October 2, and will be available nationwide soon.
B&N is taking steps to increase the visibility of its Android digital readers as well as availability. Nook Color, the color eReader cum tablet, is priced at $249 and the simpler touchscreen enabled Nook Simple Touch at $139. Both devices can now be procured from Best Buy, Books-A-Million, Fred Meyer, Office Max, P.C. Richard & Sons, Radio Shack, Staples, Target and Walmart, in addition to Barnes & Noble and www.bn.com.
Amazon.com’s Kindle Fire tablet wasn’t the only new Kindle introduced Wednesday. The retail giant also announced two new eInk eReaders — a Kindle starting at $79 and a Kindle Touch starting at $99.
The Kindle Touch is, as you might expect, a touch-screen eReader. No buttons, no keyboard; the navigation and interaction take place via swiping, tapping or typing the device’s display.
A touch-screen Kindle had been rumored for months and was essentially assured to be on the way after Amazon’s eReader rivals, Nook maker Barnes & Noble and Kobo, released touch-screen devices.
With the launch of the new $199 Amazon Kindle Fire tablet, attention may turn to Kobo, which is currently testing its Vox “eReader Tablet”.
Kobo submitted the Vox to the FCC on Sept. 14, a Wi-Fi-enabled tablet that will apparently compete with the Kindle Fire. But how? The release of Kobo Pulse, an expansion of its social platform, implies that the company will focus itself as a socially-connected platform in order to compete with Amazon’s reach.
Just in time for the holidays, iRiver has announced it is cutting the price of its Story HD from $139 to $99. But only through Oct. 15th. The move is, no doubt, meant to draw as many people to the Story HD as possible before Amazon unleashes its $79 Kindle and new $99 Kindle Touch upon the eReading masses. It’s a wise decision and one that could help iRiver capture at least some new users, before Amazon all but devours the eReader market when the Kindle Touch hits Amazon’s website on Nov. 21st. The $79 Kindle is already on sale.
Jeff Bezos would like to thank the Amazon Kindle eReader. Amazon recently obtained a financial capitalization record which only one company in the history of the Northwest United States has ever been able to achieve. The Seattle-based company which is the largest online retailer in the world has hit the magic $100 billion capitalization mark which very few companies ever see in their history.
To put this in perspective, Microsoft is the only other Northwest American company to reach $100 billion in capitalization. Caffeine kingpin Starbucks has a market capitalization of $29.2 billion, and Boeing Airlines has produced $47.7 billion in market value.
Plastic Logic has announced its new ereader, the Plastic Logic 100, a 10.7-inch electronic textbook targeted at education applications. Using the same plastic-based epaper technology as originally intended for the cancelled QUE ereader, the Plastic Logic 100 measures a mere 7.65mm thick and weighs 475g, and has a capacitive touch-controlled 1280 x 960 display and a battery life of a week.
Our reporter was on hand at the launch and shot the live image above, reporting back positively about the new school slate. Plastic Logic’s flexible display tech certainly lends itself to classrooms: it’s shatterproof, anti-glare and anti-fingerprint, while the casing is finished in soft-touch plastic. Inside is an 800MHz processor running Windows CE, along with 4GB of storage, though the UI is a custom, swipe-controlled GUI. Connectivity doesn’t include wireless, but does get microUSB.
Amazon’s tablet, reportedly named the Kindle Fire, could be the first Android device to effectively challenge Apple’s iPad. Or it could end up as just another over-hyped, under-performing tablet steamrolled by the Apple juggernaut.
With less than 36 hours until Amazon officially unveils its device, it’s hard to say which way things will go. But I do know what factors will make a difference.
Ultimately, it’s a question of how much Amazon has in common with Apple. If they have enough of the same DNA, that fact may separate the colour Kindle apart from every other Android tablet on the market – and give Cupertino a run for its money.
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