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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

#31

Post by BandN_Boy »

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…

"The question is will B&N stick with it and keep pushing."

I work part-time at a B&N, which doesn't really give me any info that you guys don't have, but I am sure that they are dedicated to this course. Nook sales are an increasing part of store and company sales.

Some things I don't care for is that, at least at my store, they have reduced the amount of books we have in stock and there is talk of getting rid of our music/DVD department. It often seems to me, especially since we sell Nooks at other resellers, that B&N management could be laying the groundwork for leaving brick and mortar stores behind.

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

#32

Post by BandN_Boy »

w33ble wrote: post #13
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…

I'm really anxious to see some comparison videos of the two. Just because the Nook Tablet looks better on paper doesn't mean it will be in practice. Amazon spent a lot of time on their interface and it actually looked pretty enjoyable to use. It looks like B&N have a tweaked interface at least, but I really want to see them used side by side. In any event, the timing on this announcement is pretty good. I was already…

I haven't played with the new one but the Nook Color user interface sometimes strikes me as a bit glitchy in it's animations. I don't know if this is because of the Nook's hardware or because compositing in Android isn't great (I haven't personally used any other Android devices, so I have nothing to compare it to).

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

#33

Post by tlholaday »

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…

> Can the expense of running brick and mortar stores for customer service possibly be worth the added cost to the customer?

Increase the size of the coffee area, have stand-up promotional materials for new releases, figure out some digital equivalent of autographed copies so that authors can continue to have readings, etc.

Barnes & Noble, your neighborhood salon.

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

#34

Post by w33ble »

TomOfTTB wrote: post #15
w33ble wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm really anxious to see some comparison videos of the two. Just because the Nook Tablet looks better on paper doesn't mean it will be in practice. Amazon spent a lot of time on their interface and it actually looked pretty enjoyable to use. It looks like B&N have a tweaked interface at least, but I really want to see them used side by side. In any event, the timing on this announcement is pretty good. I was already…

Hardly the same thing but you can get a little out of Engadget's hands-on videos... Kindle Fire: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/28/amazon-kindle-fire-impres... Nook Tablet: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/07/barnes-and-nobles-nook-ta...

Yeah, I caught the video on Engadget too, but they don't actually flip through anything on the device, they just hold it and show you how it looks, then play a video on it.

I want to know what the interface looks like, because the interface videos I've seen on the Fire look pretty stellar. If the Tablet can't match the Fire, then all the hardware specs in the world won't make it appealing to me.

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

#37

Post by alttag »

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 don't really see how it can play out well for them.
  > Can the expense of running brick and mortar stores for 
  > customer service possibly be worth the added cost to 
  > the customer? Seems doubtful.
Certainly hasn't worked out well for Apple. ... Oh, wait ...

Combined with free wifi, books that can be browsed, in store returns, they've possibly got a chance.

Will it convert me? No, I'm a Prime user with some positive AMZN customer service experiences under my belt. So, maybe B &N needs to do more courting of the tech crowd.

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

#38

Post by MisterMerkin »

tlholaday wrote: post #33
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…

> Can the expense of running brick and mortar stores for customer service possibly be worth the added cost to the customer? Increase the size of the coffee area, have stand-up promotional materials for new releases, figure out some digital equivalent of autographed copies so that authors can continue to have readings, etc. Barnes & Noble, your neighborhood salon .

So they're competing with Starbucks at that point. (Or partnering since much of the coffee in B&N is Starbucks already.)
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