Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook: B&N to use Samsung Hardware

[fjtorres]

Nice snappy name:
http://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-bar...tablet-design/

The companies announced on Thursday that they will launch co-branded tablets. The devices will be known as Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook, and feature Samsung's hardware and customized Nook software from Barnes & Noble. The first Galaxy Tab 4 Nook will hit US store shelves in August with a 7-inch display.

The decision to partner with Samsung might be a good one for Barnes & Noble. The company's Nook business has been falling off a cliff, with its last-reported quarter ended January 25 showing a 50.4 percent decline in sales and shareholders have been calling on the company to make drastic changes or shutter the operation altogether. Samsung, meanwhile, is performing somewhat well in the tablet space and is one of the leaders in Android-based tablets.

The partnership effectively ends Barnes & Noble's foray into hardware design. The company said on Thursday that while it'll still offer its Nook GlowLight -- a backlit e-ink e-reader -- it will now only support the Nook slates it's launched to this point. Leaving the hardware design to Samsung allows Barnes & Noble to focus on its own software and Nook content sales.

Nook content sales have also proven difficult to generate. During the last-reported quarter, Nook content sales, which includes digital apps and e-books, among other services, saw sales drop 26.5 percent year-over-year to $57 million.

More at the source.
So Samsung pushes Kindle and sells a Nook?
Smells like an experiment.

Good.

[faithbw]

Samsung wants to cater to as many people as possible and gets as many pieces of pie as possible. I think this is great for B&N and good for Samsung too. Now B&N doesn't have to worry about losing money on good hardware no one wants to buy. Samsung gets more customers for its tablets and customers might be willing to buy a device from them as opposed to B&N. I just hope it includes access to the Play Store.

[pl001]

Why wouldn't I just get a regular Tab and use the Nook app? I see almost no market for this. I suppose there is a small group of people who like the Nook overlay, and a group of people who want to read on Nook and don't know any better, but that's about it.

It's desperation time at B&N. This is not a viable strategy, but I suppose at this point nothing really is.

[JAcheson]

At the very least, it's probably nicer hardware than B&N would have done on their own.

[pl001]

Originally Posted by JAcheson

At the very least, it's probably nicer hardware than B&N would have done on their own.

I don't know about that. I haven't had the new Nooks in my hands, but the first two were better quality than any Samsung product I've used.

Samsung makes some good stuff. But their build quality is almost always lacking.

[afv011]

I don't see the point of this bundle - I doubt anybody will be swayed to buy it because it has the nook app integrated.

[fjtorres]

Here's some meat:

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_and_...-news-8711.php

The hardware of the new tablet is identical to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 7.0, which the Korean company announced in April. It comes with a 7" screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, a 1.2GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU and 1.5GB of RAM. The whole thing weighs just 276g and comes with a microSD card slot allowing you to expand the unconfirmed built-in storage (original Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 comes in 8GB and 16GB versions).

Its price is yet to be confirmed, but we expect it will be lower than the $200 that the regular Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 costs.

And here's a nice hand's on of the Samsung version vs the Nexus 7:
http://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/201...-galaxy-tab-4/

It'll be interesting to see the price and how much of the Samsung proprietary features show up on the Nook edition.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by pl001

Why wouldn't I just get a regular Tab and use the Nook app? I see almost no market for this. I suppose there is a small group of people who like the Nook overlay, and a group of people who want to read on Nook and don't know any better, but that's about it.

It's desperation time at B&N. This is not a viable strategy, but I suppose at this point nothing really is.

You don't know the price and you don't know what software they'll use on this new device. I'm guessing Barnes & Noble will subsidize the Galaxy Tab 4 Nook and will use the same basic software they're using on their Nook tablets now -- which isn't the same as the Nook App.

As for an act of desperation, Barnes & Noble announced several months ago that they would partner with someone else in the future, so I'm guessing negotiations have been ongoing for a while now. What's surprising to me is that this hardware partner wasn't Microsoft after their investment in Barnes & Noble's eBook division. (What did Microsoft get out of this, Barnes & Noble dropping their anti-trust lawsuit?) Apparently M$ couldn't come up with a device that would fit the price range.

The bad part of this announcement, for me, is that it looks like Barnes & Noble will be abandoning the e-Ink market. I was hoping they would come up with a new low-priced device to compete with the Basic Kindle. Probably a good time to pick up a spare Nook Simple Touch.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by pl001

I don't know about that. I haven't had the new Nooks in my hands, but the first two were better quality than any Samsung product I've used.

Samsung makes some good stuff. But their build quality is almost always lacking.

My nephew would disagree with you. After using iPads -- every version except the newest -- he went to a premium Samsung tablet and loves it. But that's beside the point, Samsungs are the best selling Android tablets on the market, so they have name recognition.

Personally I want an eReader, not a tablet, so I'm disappointed that a new e-Ink device was not announced.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by rcentros

My nephew would disagree with you. After using iPads -- every version except the newest -- he went to a premium Samsung tablet and loves it. But that's beside the point, Samsungs are the best selling Android tablets on the market, so they have name recognition.

Personally I want an eReader, not a tablet, so I'm disappointed that a new e-Ink device was not announced.

It's early to announce a new product, what with the strong seasonality of ereaders.
The main reason they announced the tablet is they released an SEC filing discussing the terms of the partnership. And a commitment to buy a million tablets from Samsung.

http://the-digital-reader.com/2014/0...g-7-10-models/

[eschwartz]

Subsidized Galaxy Tabs -- awesome target for cheap(er) tablets to be rooted and run custom ROMs, especially if you plan on doing that anyway.

Otherwise, why bother? Because we really want to tie ourselves to a company which just proved (yet again) they are going down the drain?

[Froide]

Is there any way to combine this thread with this one: MobileRead Forums > E-Book General > News > Samsung and Barnes & Noble Announce Partnership to Create Co-Branded Tablets ?

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Subsidized Galaxy Tabs -- awesome target for cheap(er) tablets to be rooted and run custom ROMs, especially if you plan on doing that anyway.

Otherwise, why bother? Because we really want to tie ourselves to a company which just proved (yet again) they are going down the drain?

What's with you and Barnes & Noble's Nook division? Did it steal your lunch money, or something?

At any rate, Barnes & Noble said a few months ago that they were going to partner with someone else when they came out with new Nooks ... and they picked the best selling Android Tablet maker to partner with. If -- as one poster here keeps saying -- they were "desperate," I would think the partner would have been some no-name shoddy tablet maker, not Samsung.

[bobstro]

I think it'll be very attractive to the same audience that bought NOOK color devices in the past. Having in-store live support is huge for a lot of people, especially those who are not tech-savvy and don't have a smart friend or relative nearby to help them. B&N also holds NOOK gatherings at many locations, so there's the community aspect.

If B&N finally pays some serious attention to their software, fixes long-standing features, and finds ways to add value (e.g. free in-store reading), I think it will be attractive, assuming they keep it at a competitive price.

This does let B&N stock devices without the huge up-front investment in hardware development and inventory. Samsung is sharing some of that risk.

It'll really come down to how good a job they do with the software. Going by the images I've seen so far, they're doing a lot more than just loading the existing NOOK Android app on it.

[Froide]

Since the new, co-branded (NOOK-Samsung) device will have access to Google's Play Store, and device owners will be eligible for Samsung Book Deals, I wonder whether or not the app through which those deals are accessed - Kindle for Samsung - will come preloaded on the new NOOK-by-Samsung device (kinda awkward on a NOOK, no?) or will have to be downloaded.