Barnes & Noble launched its widely expected tablet on Monday , get hold of on the soon - to - be released tab from book - sell challenger Amazon with a machine that has slimly better eyeglasses .
“ With the Nook Tablet we are delivering the good media twist ever created in a portable form factor , ” say Barns & Noble CEO William Lynch at a launch case at the company ’s Union Square bookstore in New York .
Lynch touted the tablet ’s screen resolution and battery life as key selling points .
The tablet will dish as an east - reader and can stream HD film and music . The troupe has signed partnerships with Hulu and Netflix to furnish television content . exploiter will be capable to read magazine , interactive youngster ’s books , and comic books , and apply apps from the Barnes & Noble Nook Store . The showing is a proprietary design call “ VividView , ” which Lynch enunciate has a vindicated exhibit and spacious viewing slant than other tablets .
As for battery lifespan , Lynch said that a user would be capable to see movies , either on disk or streaming , for 8 hour . That would mean five full - length HD moves on a flying between New York and Rome , for instance . For reading , the battery will last as long as 11 hours .
The pad will be useable “ by the end of next week ” at Barnes & Noble stores , other retailers , and by chain armour . exploiter will be able-bodied to economise data on the Nook Cloud , and Barnes & Noble will provide gratis Wi - Fi at all its stores through AT&T.
Lynch took meter in the presentation to equate the unexampled pad with the Kindle Fire , which he disparaged . “ The Kindle Fire is inferior for a media pad of paper , ” he said . The Kindle Fire ’s 512 M of RAM does not put up enough way to play a game app while translate a magazine or feed another app , he say . Its 8 GB of store is not enough to hold medium for those situation where the substance abuser is not connected to the Internet . “ You ’re not always going to be connected to the cloud , ” he said .
The Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet will cost $ 249 . The company will unload the price of the previous edition of the Nook , the Nook Color e - lector / tablet , to $ 199 .
The Nook is a 7 - inch tablet , weighing 14.1 ounces . It features a 1024 - by-600 touch screen . It will come with 1 GB of RAM , 16 GB of internal computer storage , and an South Dakota card expansion slot that accepts up additional memory cards up to 32 GB . Processor - wise , the whole will boast a 1GHz two-fold - nucleus OMAP4 chip .
With their up-to-the-minute releases , both Barnes & Noble and Amazon , whose Kindle Fire is due out on Nov. 15 priced at $ 199 , are contend not only in the market for e - readers but also for general intent tablets . The tablet market is currently dominated by Apple ’s iPad . IDC in September suppose tablet shipments this year would turn over 62.5 million unit .
Barnes & Noble inclose the Nook Color primarily as an e - reader in October of last year . Although Barnes & Noble expressed no intent on expanding Nook as a full - feather ecumenical purpose tab , modders soon rooted the machine and load customized Android versions to run for third - company program program .
Recognizing Nook Color ’s tablet potential difference , Barnes & Noble in April issued a software update that officially reach the equipment instant keep , game such as Angry Birds , built - in email , multimedia ebook features and new societal networking and WWW tool . The Aprilupdateto Android 2.2 , computer code - key out Froyo , also provide performance improvements .
Nook products are becoming more important for Barnes & Noble as ebook sales get and the company scales back retail memory board operations . Barnes & Noble in September enounce that while retail storehouse cut-rate sale make up a bulk of the fellowship ’s job , consumer spending was trending toward digital content , which was defining the company ’s focal point .
In June , Barnes & Noble said it was sell three times as many digital books through its website compared to strong-arm al-Qur’an . As of September , the companyhad 1300 retail computer storage , which were a “ major competitory plus ” in further digital content and gadget sales .
Barnes & Noble ’s Nook production also include the Nook Simple Touch Reader , which is price starting at $ 139 , and the original Nook , which start at $ 89 . Barnes & Noble propose 2 million ebooks for download , according to the companionship ’s website .
Barnes & Noble ’s top atomic number 99 - reader rival is Amazon , which offer Kindle e - readers . E - lector loading total 5.4 million units during the 2d twenty-five percent this yr , growing by 167 per centum compare to the same quarter last class . Amazon was the top e - lector seller with a 51.7 percent market share , while Barnes & Noble held a 21.2 pct share in the second quarter . IDCexpectsworldwide e - reader shipments to total 27 million units this yr .
( Agam Shah in New York bestow to this report . )
