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Barnes & Noble Officially Unveils The 7-Inch Nook Tablet

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Re: Barnes & Noble Officially Unveils The 7-Inch Nook Tablet

#21

Post by joebadmo »

mahyarm wrote: post #20
joebadmo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had two friends get overnighted new kindles to replaces ones that they broke. Amazon's customer service is, quite frankly, better than almost any brick and mortar store's customer service. And I don't even have to leave my home. It's an interesting play on B&N's part, and I don't really see how it can play out well for them. They've more or less acknowledged that the future of almost all of their wares is digita…

Amazon's only return unopened items unless faulty policy is something that is customer unfriendly compared to a typical big box store. And as far as I know, you have to go to a shipping office to ship the return back. Can you just print a label and wait for the post man to come pick it up for no cost?

I'm not really sure what the actual return policy is, but both of my friends had had the kindles for a while before they broke them. They then contacted Amazon to see what their options were and got replacements for free.

I just returned an unopened item. I just printed the label, put it back in the original shipping box and left it on the porch for the mail carrier to pick up.

Re: Barnes & Noble Officially Unveils The 7-Inch Nook Tablet

#22

Post by jrockway »

mahyarm wrote: post #20
joebadmo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had two friends get overnighted new kindles to replaces ones that they broke. Amazon's customer service is, quite frankly, better than almost any brick and mortar store's customer service. And I don't even have to leave my home. It's an interesting play on B&N's part, and I don't really see how it can play out well for them. They've more or less acknowledged that the future of almost all of their wares is digita…

Amazon's only return unopened items unless faulty policy is something that is customer unfriendly compared to a typical big box store. And as far as I know, you have to go to a shipping office to ship the return back. Can you just print a label and wait for the post man to come pick it up for no cost?

Not true. Amazon's response to support requests is, in my experience, "we're overnighting you a new widget. do whatever you want with the old one."

This isn't documented, but it's how things have always worked for me. Sometimes my request is "the item in the description is not the item I've received" and I eventually give up after receiving the same wrong item 4 times. That's how ingrained the process is; they don't read my email, they just mail me a replacement. Oh well.

Re: Barnes & Noble Officially Unveils The 7-Inch Nook Tablet

#23

Post by inportb »

joebadmo wrote: post #19
r00fus wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Copying Apple's Genius Bar idea is a great competitive move vs. Amazon (what, Mr. Bezos, is that no-footprint advantage of yours... chafing?) Some folks are of the opinion that Amazon will wipe the floor with B&N, but I think B&N aren't going to give up easily.

I've had two friends get overnighted new kindles to replaces ones that they broke. Amazon's customer service is, quite frankly, better than almost any brick and mortar store's customer service. And I don't even have to leave my home. It's an interesting play on B&N's part, and I don't really see how it can play out well for them. They've more or less acknowledged that the future of almost all of their wares is digita…

I had the same experience. My Kindle 2 stopped working, and I got a new one for free in the mail two days after I called Amazon up about it. On the other hand, I also love my h4x'd first-generation Nook.

Re: Barnes & Noble Officially Unveils The 7-Inch Nook Tablet

#24

Post by ceejayoz »

TomOfTTB wrote: post #2

Spec wise it beats the Kindle Fire in just about every category (More RAM, more Storage Potential, Better Battery Life). The question is will B&N stick with it and keep pushing. Two things make me think they will. 1. They recently made a deal with Appcelerator to favor apps built using those tools and to provide more support for those developers (for those who don't know Appcelerator allows you to write iPhone and An…

Appcelerator Desktop lets you use Ruby, Python, etc. (PHP too), but not Appcelerator Mobile. It's all JS.

Re: Barnes & Noble Officially Unveils The 7-Inch Nook Tablet

#25

Post by CapitalistCartr »

The specs on this are all I could hope for, except for the display. It has the same pixel count as my iPhone 4, spread out over four times the area. I don't want it to have four times the pixels, but 1280x720 would be great. Jailbroken, it'd be a perfect slab to carry.

Re: Barnes & Noble Officially Unveils The 7-Inch Nook Tablet

#26

Post by brudgers »

Last month, I ordered Paw Wax for my 13 year old dog, and a Dremel 300 for my son's birthday from Amazon. I'd like to think B&N can compete, but I've never used their website and last time I bought a book from a brick and mortar location, it was sad.

I'm old enough to remember when checking out of a book store often involved a short conversation about books rather than a "No Thanks" to a Godaddy like gauntlet of magazine subscription offers and membership cards coupled with watching another human being humiliate theirself.

Sorry but I don't care if B&N puts tits in the box with their tablet, I have no love for the brand.

Re: Barnes & Noble Officially Unveils The 7-Inch Nook Tablet

#27

Post by joebadmo »

Amazon's running an ad in which people use their smartphones to take photos of things, scan barcodes, and search to wishlist/buy things on Amazon. There's even a scene in which a guy in a brick and mortar store puts a package of diapers back on the shelf.

In other words, Amazon is actively predating on retail markets left and right, to the extent of relegating them to display models for their own merchandise. Media consumption is a big recent play, but they're moving forward on killing traditional retail, too.

Meanwhile, B&N is making competent moves in the struggle to survive. It seems almost noble in its futility.

Re: Barnes & Noble Officially Unveils The 7-Inch Nook Tablet

#28

Post by bunderbunder »

shrikant wrote: post #14
thematt wrote: post #7

I think the Nook is B&N's last attempt at salvaging their company, but ultimately I don't think they can win. Amazon can destroy them in pricing and make up for it with the follow-on purchases that people will make of books, media, etc. B&N simply cannot afford (financially) to take a loss on the hardware. If they wanted to -- Amazon could start giving away Kindle's for free (or dirt cheap) to Prime subscribers and i…

Also, I don't know what split is like, but it is ridiculously easy to buy a Kindle in the UK (and I'm going to extrapolate that to Europe). Or if that doesn't float your boat, then just pick up a Sony or Kobo eReader - all you need to do is walk into the any major electronics retailer. Given that this market exists, and is being actively courted by every player in this field, B&N will NEED to sort out global distribu…

I'm already becoming dissatisfied with my Nook over B&N's failure to really come to terms with the rest of the world. The number of non-North American authors I follow whose work is for sale in Kindle editions but not Nook editions isn't exactly zero.

Re: Barnes & Noble Officially Unveils The 7-Inch Nook Tablet

#29

Post by gyardley »

thematt wrote: post #7

I think the Nook is B&N's last attempt at salvaging their company, but ultimately I don't think they can win. Amazon can destroy them in pricing and make up for it with the follow-on purchases that people will make of books, media, etc. B&N simply cannot afford (financially) to take a loss on the hardware. If they wanted to -- Amazon could start giving away Kindle's for free (or dirt cheap) to Prime subscribers and i…

B&N simply cannot afford (financially) to take a loss on the hardware.

They're doing this already. People with Nooks make follow-on purchases too.

Over the past couple of years, I've seen B&N upgrade their tech and product teams and lay the groundwork for a future where they - like Amazon - have no physical locations but offer far more than books over the web, and make much of their money through the sale of digital goods.

I'm skeptical they'll catch up with Amazon, but when the actual physical bookstore is a quaint and obscure relic, I think they'll still be trucking along quite nicely. The company's already massively undervalued given their share of the ebook market.

Re: Barnes & Noble Officially Unveils The 7-Inch Nook Tablet

#30

Post by bunderbunder »

brudgers wrote: post #26

Last month, I ordered Paw Wax for my 13 year old dog, and a Dremel 300 for my son's birthday from Amazon. I'd like to think B&N can compete, but I've never used their website and last time I bought a book from a brick and mortar location, it was sad. I'm old enough to remember when checking out of a book store often involved a short conversation about books rather than a "No Thanks" to a Godaddy like gauntlet of maga…

They really need to get that gauntlet under control. In the past, there have been times where I was on the fence about a purchase and the tie-breaker was that I did not want to deal with getting pestered about the loyalty program yet again.
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