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B&N started well with one of if not the first front lit ereaders. Their tablet line was of course plagued with bad decisions.
But then BN stopped innovating. They let their eink live fall behind the rest of the market and when the Nook glowlight was released it was catching up to models from Amazon and Kobo that were already a year on the market. Then came the Glowlight Plus which boasted an upgraded screen which I think was on par timewise with the others. However BN opted to take away the SD card slot which wasn't so bad, but they also changed the basic physical design, making the back a metal plate in either rose gold or something similar and the front a textured off white plastic. The metal back made the device slick and hard to hold while the front diminished the brightness of the screen.
They also never really improved in terms of software after the second generation eink Nook. Amazon had whispersync, and X-ray along with easier public library access. Kobo had all sorts of reading experience improvements and tweaks, and Rakuten is still spending money to improve it having purchased Overdrive a bit back and Shelfie more recently.
This is of course after all the screw ups with DRM, downloads from the website, discontinuing support for the apps, never tying Nook in to Nook study.
At this point I think BN should bite the bullet and work out a deal with Kobo selling eBooks through them and selling their devices in stores. Nook is a dying breed which is only serving to be a cash sink for a brick and mortar retailer that can ill afford it
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