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New Rumors Suggest New Nook Tablet Coming This Month

Amazon got most all of the press attention last week but there was at least one Nook story which I shouldn’t have have let fal through the cracks.

According to a couple different blogs, Barnes & Noble is planning to release a new Nook Tablet in the next couple weeks. The accounts vary, but according to one source the new Nook tablet will run Windows 8 , not Android found running under the current Nook Tablet. Both source agree that it’s coming this month and that it will have a 7″ screen.

Engadget is also reporting that that the new device will be designed by Robert Brunner of Ammunition Group. He’s to blame for the original Nook, and his firm is also credited with the design of the Nook Touch. Rumors also suggest a new video store for the new Nook Tablet which is intended to take advantage of a new higher resolution screen. It’s reportedly going to be something in the range of 243ppi

Eh. This bit of news falls into the "whatja expect" category. I mean, did anyone really think B&N wouldn’t release a new Nook Tablet this year? Or that it would be coming fairly soon?

It’s my guess that B&N is actually planning to announce the new Nook Tablet this week or the week immediately after. Do you recall how B&N and Amazon got into a press release war the week before last? That was what convinced me.

The event is probably going to be held at B&N’s flagship store in NYC, though that is less than definite. The Nook Glow launch wasn’t held there, I don’t think.

In any case, I likely won’t be invited. Due to Barnes & Noble’s dislike of how well I do my job, I am not likely to get an invite. Who knows, they might even take out a restraining order to keep me more than 100 meters from their stores. It couldn’t be any crazier than having a marketing director personally insult a blogger.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/barnes-and-noble-new-nook-in-september/

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Comments


digital reader fan September 9, 2012 um 10:25 am

I think it would be better for them to give you an invite this time. You mentioned a lot you would do the embargo like everyone else if you were given one. In any event, win 8 is a fun rumor to follow. Competition is great for us consumers.


Syn September 9, 2012 um 11:15 am

If Barnes and Noble announces this, and its really running Windows 8, it probably won’t come out until end of October with all the rest of the Win8 stuff. I wonder how their old Nook tablet users will feel if suddenly they can’t run the new software because its no longer compatible.

At any rate, it should be interesting to see. I thought Barnes and Noble did a good job on their hardware, its their lack of services that put them way behind Amazon, not to mention their lack of customer focused policies. Amazon will lose money to keep you happy, Barnes and Noble will lose you as a customer to save a few bucks.

Trust me I know this first hand.

cookie September 9, 2012 um 12:56 pm

of course, there are some customers who are more trouble they are worth, like all the people who buy B & N hardware, but never buy anything from their store. I wonder what percentage of B&N hardware owners have actually bought an ebook. It would be an interesting stat.

Tyler September 10, 2012 um 12:40 am

I would think it the opposite. How many Nook owners buy very many apps? I have the Nook tablet but really don’t want to spend the money on apps because they really can not be used elsewhere. On the other hand, I have bought ebooks because I can just strip the DRM from them and read them on any of my devices.

BruceMcF September 13, 2012 um 12:52 am

Not many ~ the problem is more the lack of a few specific apps that someone wants than the desire to have a hundred apps on their Nook.

A movie rental download option, though … that could leverage the SD card, which is one of the strengths of the Nook over the Kindle Fire or Nexus 7 when going somewhere away from WiFi. Its hard to see how B&N has enough clout with movie/TV sources to swing that on their own, but if its actually XBox Live on the backend, Microsoft obviously would be more likely to have that clout.


burger flipper September 9, 2012 um 2:25 pm

Syn, if they move away from android, they damn well better open their old tablets to Google play. That should maintain good will and not leave their customers feeling abandoned.

fjtorres September 9, 2012 um 2:58 pm

Like they did back in 2003 when they stopped selling ebooks?


fjtorres September 9, 2012 um 7:53 pm

Under normal conditions a Win8 or even WP7 tablet would be interesting.
But given B&N’s record of clamping down on app availability and tablet usage modes as well as partitioning limits I’m not going to rush even if it turns out to be a $200 Win8 device.
(More realistically, it’ll likelly be a large format tablet in the $400 range and a supplement to the smaller, cheaper android gadgets.)

flyingtoastr September 10, 2012 um 3:40 pm

"partitioning limits"

You do know this is a problem with Android as a whole, not BN, right? Every Android device has at least three partitions, each of which can only store certain data types. It’s a disaster by any measure, but it isn’t BN’s fault.

And BN couldn’t "clamp down" on a Windows tablet for the simple fact that Microsoft doesn’t allow OEM modification of the UX of Win8.

Nate Hoffelder September 10, 2012 um 3:45 pm

Except that B&N is more restrictive than virtually anyone.

Logan Kennelly September 10, 2012 um 4:19 pm

Android stopped treating partitions this way with the release of Android 3.0 18 months ago, but, to be fair to B&N, they probably don’t get early access to the source. On that timeline, B&N would have only had access to the "new way" a month before release (obviously not enough time).

The multiple partitions scheme makes sense with the security model and features of Android and the hardware available at the time. This has since changed through software and hardware development.

It is still B&N’s fault,though. They could have used one media partition for all media but instead chose to hide B&N content which (sort of) required them to split the partitions. That wasn’t an Android thing.

BruceMcF September 13, 2012 um 12:47 am

Consider WHY B&N have been offering closed ecosystems ~ because two biggest alternatives were to fund competitor Amazon (Kindle) or fund competitor Google (Google Books). Supposedly under their deal with Windows, B&N IS the default ebookstore for Windows 8.

They have an option that the rumor mill has been ignoring, which is to sell an Android (2.3 or 4.1) tablet with an optional Windows8/RT install. They could, indeed, sandbox an Android system to run under Windows8/RT and bill the Windows8/RT install as being able to buy from either the Nook apps store OR the Windows Metro store.

Nate Hoffelder September 13, 2012 um 8:38 am

Except that while trying to capture the value of a closed ecosystem for themselves, B&N has also deprived value to customers. We cannot get free apps for the Nook Tablet other than through B&N, and that lessens the value of the device. It does less, so it’s worth less.

There’s a saying along the lines of "don’t capture all the value you create". The idea is that you’re supposed to let others benefit from your work along with you. That way they’ll value the work more and be more likely to invest in it.


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