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Andrew H. · 09-28-2011, 10:58 PM

B&N will have their work cut out for them dealing with Amazon's new offerings, but I don't think that things are hopeless for B&N. And they may not have been as surprised by some of what Amazon brought as we (or I) was.

1. Special Offers. The Nook will have to offer some of these to get the price down; a lot of shoppers are very price sensitive when it comes to e-readers. Which is why the K3 KSO wifi ($114) is the current Kindle bestseller. Added to this is the fact that, I assume, the Special Offers are bringing more to Amazon than they expected - while the original SO's only gave a $25 discount, on the new line there are discounts of up to $50 - and even the cheapest Kindle has a $30 discount for special offers.

However, the KSO has been out for a while, and B&N has had the chance to see how it works...so I would be surprised if they *haven't* been working on something similar. Although they may have done so under the assumption that an appropriate discount would be $25 and not more. Still, they need to add something like this, and in time for Christmas - when grandma sees that she can buy junior a Kindle for $79 or a Nook for $139, she will probably go for the Kindle. (And you know that "Kindle, starting at $79..." is going to be heavily advertised.)

2. Nook Color 2. B&N has been working on this for some time; I would assume that it will have similar specs to the Kindle. But they need to have a matching price, or a clear reason why the NC 2 is worth $50 more.

No one was surprised that the Fire came with an easy way to watch Amazon's videos; everyone knew this would be the case, and no one more than B&N. So what they need to do - and presumably have been working on for a year - is offer Netflix, Hulu, and any other similar service on the 2. Netflix and Hulu compete directly with Amazon, so I think that they would also be interested.

Silk is pretty cool, and I'll be interested to see how it works in person, - but I don't think it's really going to be much of a selling point for average consumers. And over wifi, the normal browser works well enough.

3. 3G. One of the things that is missing from the Fire is 3G. A NC2 with 3G for $250 would be very competitive if you could buy a monthly no-contract data plan for $15 or so for 250 MB. (or more...).

4. International. The Nook needs to be available internationally, particularly in markets where Epub is standard, Kindle isn't that established yet, and people are happy enough to side-load books.

09-28-2011, 10:58 PM	#45
Andrew H. Grand Master of Flowers Posts: 2,201 Karma: 8389072 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Naptown Device: Kindle PW, Kindle 3 (aka Keyboard), iPhone, iPad 3 (not for reading)	B&N will have their work cut out for them dealing with Amazon's new offerings, but I don't think that things are hopeless for B&N. And they may not have been as surprised by some of what Amazon brought as we (or I) was. 1. Special Offers. The Nook will have to offer some of these to get the price down; a lot of shoppers are very price sensitive when it comes to e-readers. Which is why the K3 KSO wifi ($114) is the current Kindle bestseller. Added to this is the fact that, I assume, the Special Offers are bringing more to Amazon than they expected - while the original SO's only gave a $25 discount, on the new line there are discounts of up to $50 - and even the cheapest Kindle has a $30 discount for special offers. However, the KSO has been out for a while, and B&N has had the chance to see how it works...so I would be surprised if they haven't been working on something similar. Although they may have done so under the assumption that an appropriate discount would be $25 and not more. Still, they need to add something like this, and in time for Christmas - when grandma sees that she can buy junior a Kindle for $79 or a Nook for $139, she will probably go for the Kindle. (And you know that "Kindle, starting at $79..." is going to be heavily advertised.) 2. Nook Color 2. B&N has been working on this for some time; I would assume that it will have similar specs to the Kindle. But they need to have a matching price, or a clear reason why the NC 2 is worth $50 more. No one was surprised that the Fire came with an easy way to watch Amazon's videos; everyone knew this would be the case, and no one more than B&N. So what they need to do - and presumably have been working on for a year - is offer Netflix, Hulu, and any other similar service on the 2. Netflix and Hulu compete directly with Amazon, so I think that they would also be interested. Silk is pretty cool, and I'll be interested to see how it works in person, - but I don't think it's really going to be much of a selling point for average consumers. And over wifi, the normal browser works well enough. 3. 3G. One of the things that is missing from the Fire is 3G. A NC2 with 3G for $250 would be very competitive if you could buy a monthly no-contract data plan for $15 or so for 250 MB. (or more...). 4. International. The Nook needs to be available internationally, particularly in markets where Epub is standard, Kindle isn't that established yet, and people are happy enough to side-load books.