Barnes and Noble runs more sales on their tablets and ereaders than anyone, and today it’s looking like things are getting a little desperate. Either that or B&N is starting to clear way for a replacement to the Nook Tablet.
Barnes and Noble is currently selling refurbished Nook Tablets for just $140 from their eBay store. That’s by far the lowest price the Nook Tablet has ever been, at that’s for the 16GB model no less. Usually it goes for $199 refurbished and $249 new.
Last week B&N started selling 8GB Nook Tablet refurbs for $159. Oddly they are still at that price despite the fact the 16GB model is now selling for cheaper.
With all the other tablets on the market, and especially the Google Nexus 7, it’s easy to see how the Nook Tablet is getting left behind with it’s closed-in software and walled-in platform.
If Barnes and Noble still wants to continue selling tablets, they are really going to have to take things up a notch because competition is getting a lot tougher than it was a couple of years ago when they first released the highly-popular Nook Color.
It’s hard to imagine what B&N could do to stay in the fight given the slim selection in their appstore and the way they insist on keeping everyone locked into the B&N platform instead of letting people get apps from wherever they please.
There was a rumor going around a few weeks back that suggests B&N is going to release a new tablet with “revolutionary screen technology” that has not been seen in another product before.
Unless B&N decides to go with a more open approach, that’s about the only thing that could be their saving grace moving forward. Hopefully they’ve got some new super-secret display technology that will set the new Nook Tablet apart from everything else out there.
I have always been tempted to buy a Nook Tablet. I love the look and feel of the device, and the expandable memory SD slot. Before the Nexus 7, the Nook Tablet had a slight edge over the Kindle Fire when it came to screen resolution. Even though both devices featured the same resolution, the NT screen seemed more vivid, and text looked sharper. According to an article I read, this has something to do with the display technology, so if they continue down this path and put out a 1280 x 800 screen, they might attract some business. Their closed platform is just too unappealing though, and there appstore has to be one of the worst.
I have the Nook Color and really like it. I’m using an SD card and booting it to the Android OS and rarely use the Nook interface. But by using the card I’m preserving the Nook OS if I need to boot to it for some reason.
Plus in addition to installing the Nook app, I have the Kindle app to read books from my wife’s Kindle as well, and access to Google Play store, gmail, etc.
Best of both worlds that way, or sort of anyway.
🙂
I don’t even think I’d be interest in them at that price even if they were new 🙁
I would seriously consider anything with a revolutionary screen technology. I am committed go buying an M8 tablet, the Lenovo variant sound really interesting as it might be able to run both the RT and Pro OS’s, but to have a versatile screen tablet would be a dream come true.
Are you referring to the Microsoft Surface?
“Microsoft Surface The Next Zune”: http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/microsoft_news/240004825
I have a feeling that article nails it on the head. It looks like Microsoft has some good ideas but if they price them too high it’s never going to put a big enough dent in Apple and Android.
Here is the other side of the [url=http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Comparing-Microsoft-Surface-to-Zune-Music-Player-a-Low-Blow-Analyst-Says-565978/]argument[/url].
Oops, try this: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Comparing-Microsoft-Surface-to-Zune-Music-Player-a-Low-Blow-Analyst-Says-565978/
Here is one way to measure how the Nexus 7 has affected Nook Tablet sales. In the weeks before the Nexus 7 was released, B&N ran a couple of eBay sales of refurbished 16GB Nook Tablets and buy-one-get-one free Nook Color and Nook Simple Touch. They they sold 4,035 NC+NT deals, and about 1,100 16GB Nook Tablets (at $179 a unit) after a three or four day sale. They have had their most recent $140 Nook Tablet sale going all weekend, and as of Sunday morning (usually Sunday has been the last day of their eBay sales) they have only sold 574 units.
Wow. Those are some low numbers. It’s not looking very good for B&N. If I was in charge over there, things would be a lot different.