It looks like Barnes and Noble is clearing out their Nook Color inventory to make room for the upcoming Nook HD and Nook HD+ that are going to be released on November 1st.
Currently Barnes and Noble is selling the Nook Color for just $99 from their eBay store, and that includes free shipping. These are refurbished units that were previously selling for $129.
This is the lowest price I can ever remember seeing for the Nook Color. It originally sold for $249 back when it first came out.
Seeing as how it was released back in November of 2010, the Nook Color’s hardware is fairly dated by this time, but it can still serve as a good LCD ereader and basic tablet. Plus there are a number of hacks and ROMs for it, including one for the latest version of Android 4.1.2 JellyBean.
For ereading the Nook Color is still a good option at $99, especially once modded, because then it can install any ereading app instead of being limited to just Barnes and Noble.
The biggest negative is the single core 800MHz processor, which is rather slow compared to what is being used on most budget tablets these days.
But it does have the upgraded 1024 x 600 screen that is big step up from many of the sub-$130 tablets with 800 x 600 resolution screens. And it has the microSD memory card slot for expansion.
B&N is also selling refurbished Nook Touches and Nook Tablets from their eBay store, but the prices are just okay right now. I bet they will be quite a bit lower next month, especially around Black Monday and Cyber Monday.
“B&N is also selling refurbished Nook Touches and Nook Tablets from their eBay store, but the prices are just okay right now. I bet they will be quite a bit lower next month, … ”
Given the look at B&N’s Nook webpage
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook
I kind of wonder if the Tablet will be around at all next month. It isn’t like they are trying to give any exposure to the Color or Tablet at all.
You can dig into the Nook menus and get to the offering, but the user has to specifically look for it. In contrast, while not at the top kindle page at Amazon, the ‘regular’ Fire is a member of the Kindle Fire Family.
If they pull Nook Tablet as a product, they’ll need refurbs for replacements as the production of “new” would have gone to zero.
Looks like B&N is going to ‘bet the farm’ on just the new HD and HD+ models.
Very tempting it is!
I just got off the phone with my local B&N, and they think they will have the Nook HD line in by next week, Oct 26 or so. I am now on a list to be emailed when they are available at this location. I think I have decided to sell my Nexus 7 before it plunges in value after the coming 32GB release and replace it with the HD+. I hope that the new Nooks get rooted soon!
I bet you are right. Every year I pre-order a Nook and then they usually end up being available from B&N stores a few days before they even ship the pre-order. I’m going to call my local B&N and see if I can get on an email list too.
I bought one of these a year or more ago because I had a bunch of gift cards. I modded it, then promptly stuck it in a drawer and haven’t touched it since. I just didn’t find it to be particularly good at,well, anything really. Too much finger wiping and zooming to be good for web browsing or comics/magazines and it was terrible as a reader with its pathetic battery life. Even at $99, I’d hesitate to recommend this at all.
For $99 I would think about it if I already did not have one. It is a nice little LCD ereader/tablet. The NC was my primary reader from december 2010 to may 2012 and I found it worked well and the battery was good for what it was. That said, I like my KF better, which is what replaced my NC for my daily reader. But for $99 that is not a bad deal IMO.
It is the 1st gen kindle fire I want @ 99
Looks like B&N is keeping the Color and Tablet.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/3/3594602/price-drop-nook-color-tablet-barnes-noble-november
Also looks like they aren’t competing so much with the Paperwhite with the Glow Lite but with the Color.
Remove the ads from a Paperwhite and this is about the same ( $119 + 20 = $139 ; new Color price). Worse PPI and not e-ink, but uniformly lit.
If B&N is pivoting it may be away from e-ink. They are the ones that jumped first in that direction with their response to the Kindle.