(Image Source: PC Magazine)
BY JIM FLINK
Inside the envelope -- a mystery. Tech writers received a veiled message from Barnes & Noble this week. Big announcement. What is it? No one’s saying -- though lots are speculating. Here’s Gizmodo.
“The internet fairy just dropped this in our inboxes—an invitation from Barnes & Noble to check out a ‘very special announcement.’ What could it be? Perhaps they're carrying new stationary! Nook Nook Nook. New Nook Color. November 7th.”
A color e-reader.
Been there, done that.
So, what’s so special about the new Nook?
An analyst tells the Wall Street Journal, the old Nook, carved out quite a segment of the marketplace.
“If it’s just a reading device, then I don’t think they need to be making the hardware. But if it’s actually a stand-alone multi-purpose reading, viewing, communicating, surfing device, then yeah, there’s a lot more money to be made in that market it seems like.”
“Barnes and Noble now claims roughly 27% of the entire digital books market. They’ve made up a lot of ground.”
Question is -- will the Nook catch fire?
As in -- the refreshed Kindle tablet.
Mashable says, if it doesn’t -- the Nook may not have a niche.
“We don’t know anything about the hardware or what version of Android it will run, but we’re looking forward to the round of leaks and rumors that will undoubtedly surface in the upcoming week. What we do know, is the device will need to outperform Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet if it wants to make any serious headway in the tablet/ereader market.”
Performance is one measuring stick of success.
Price is another.
CNET notes, Barnes and Noble will have to get both right, to make it against more established brands.
“Potentially, the one big advantage a new Nook Color would have over the Kindle Fire is more memory--or at least expandable memory. The Fire, which taps into Amazon's suite of audio, video, and Web services and features its new Silk Web browser and App Store for Android, has 8GB of internal memory (6GB usable) and no memory expansion slot.”
