Barnes & Noble Nook: Improved Tablet May Be Introduced Monday

By Phil Wahba
(Reuters) - Barnes & Noble Inc will introduce on Monday what analysts and the blogosphere predict will be improved, and in some cases, cheaper versions of its Nook devices to compete for holiday tablet sales.

The largest U.S. bookstore chain's Nook has been a hit since its launch in 2009, but the retailer is under pressure from Amazon.com Inc, which in September introduced the Kindle Fire, its first tablet, to challenge the tablet-like Nook Color and slashed the price on its basic Kindle.

Technology blog Engadget claimed in a post on Thursday to know that Barnes & Noble would unveil its first tablet, for $249 at the launch in New York. It earlier said, citing leaked presentation slides, that Barnes & Noble would lower the price on its touchscreen e-reader, launched in May, to $99 from $139, matching that of the Kindle Touch.

A Barnes & Noble spokeswoman declined to comment.

Whatever the company presents on Monday, analysts said Barnes & Noble would need to show a new product or at least a significant upgrade with strong new features to keep Barnes & Noble competitive, justify any higher prices and win customers.

"You lock them into the Nook platform and promise them that new devices are also going to be coming out," said Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey.

Barnes & Noble has faced years of shrinking book sales, so it has invested tens of millions of dollars to develop the Nook to reinvent itself as readers move to digital formats. It claims to now have about a quarter of the digital books market.

Despite having modest financial means compared with Amazon, its Nook Color beat Kindle Fire to the market by a year, and its touchscreen reader was launched in May, months ahead of Amazon's.

Amazon's aggressive pricing will put pressure on Barnes & Noble to follow suit on the devices it does not upgrade.

"Amazon is in land grab mode," said Morningstar analyst Peter Wahlstrom. "Barnes & Noble doesn't want to be seen as a low-cost leader. They want to be viewed as a premium product."

(Reporting by Phil Wahba; editing by Gunna Dickson)
Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Comments

[AZLionQueen]

11:43 AM on 11/07/2011

I love my Nook too! So easy to get books now and lighter on my shoulder bag LOL I just have the basic one and it serves my reading needs. If they offer a good sized tablet for under $200 I might just go for that.

[FlaviaDeLuce]

11:43 AM on 11/07/2011

I have both Nooks, the blk&white and the color one and they are perfect, I at least don't need another one for a while, playing games is also fun on them, I probably burned an hour yesterday morning playing Angry Birds and MahJong on the NC.. then switched to reading which I use it mostly for.

[drunkarate]

11:33 AM on 11/07/2011

I love my Nook. The ePub format compatibility is a life saver. I don't like Amazon's iron fist ruling over my products.

[bryanzth]

11:16 AM on 11/07/2011

I am a natural Apple fanboy. Hah. You guys... But I saw the Nook color in a B&N and after being shown that it could do 80% or so of what many other tablets do, I am enthused. The present Nook color was smaller, so I would say a larger sized tablet would be what we're gonna see. Great. Let the competition rage (but cleanly) so that consumers and the world benenfits more than the shareholders. And no, I am not a B&N plant or anything like that. I just like good design, so I guess that makes me a Good Design Fanboy, eh? Steve Jobs, Edward Tufte, Don Norman and all their heirs... BZ.