Why B&N Nook is failing.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I think the Glowlight Plus is very nice. Hardware wise, I think it's the best 6" e-reader currently available aside from the premium Voyage and Oasis.

After using a Kobo, I do wish the software were better. But if my Kobo were to start pushing up daisies, I'd buy a Glowlight Plus.

The screen of the Glowlight Plus is good, I forget how the memory is allocated but I want to say it wasn't limiting. But the casing is a huge turnoff for me. The metal backing makes it slick, and there were issues with it possibly causing the device to be too cold to use for lengthy periods after being in cold temperatures. And the off white textured front bezel makes the screen appear dull to me. I'm not sure why BN switched to white devices other than maybe trying to stick out in a sea of black ones. Of course by this time the ship had already been taking on water and a color change wasn't going to solve the problems Nook was facing.

[JSWolf]

The case for the nook NST was a strange shape and the buttons were rubbery and rather hard to press. I know it's a touch screen, but for those who wanted buttons, they were not good. Also, the partitioned memory was a very bad idea. Then the firmware was atrocious. overall, I think the nook NST was the death of the eInk B&N Readers. Nothing ever got any better.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I disagree here. Using both stores' fifty dollar cheapie tablets as a comparison, I can say that the Nook tablet is just an Android tablet with B&N's launcher installed. It comes with the Play Store installed and you can change the launcher if you like.

I agree, that's what B&N's 7"er is, and it's certainly nice that it comes with the Play store, although it kind of defeats the purpose of most store branded devices. There's nothing compelling someone to buy/use B&N eBooks on it (& B&N doesn't offer other media for it [music, movies, etc.]). A good thing for the consumer, but not sure how good it is for B&N (& they need the repeat content sales, not the device sales where they make very little).

Then B&N had two issues that have cost them when it comes to this model. There was a recall due to faulty chargers and it got some really bad pub over the Adups spyware thing.

No idea if B&N blocks sideloading as they did on their earlier tablets, but like you say it doesn't matter as much with the Play store available.

I've heard that the B&N 7"er has had something done to the screen to make it nicer for reading than the Fire (despite both being low ppi), but I don't know what that would be or if it's true. I know they had some special coating on the old Color and Tab, maybe it's something like that. The just say "optimized for reading" which may be something similar to the Fire's polarizing filter.

The Fire tablet runs Fire OS, a modified version of Android. You have to hack it to install the Play Store and you can't change the launcher.

I don't know that I'd call sideloading a couple of apps as hacking it, but you do have to add it yourself, that much is true.

The Fire is meant to be an Amazon consumption (books, movies, magazines, music, etc.) and shopping (through the built in store and with Alexa) which it does well and allows Amazon to frequently sell it for even less than the $50 list price.



B&N definitely has the better device if what you want is a generic tablet, but I'm not sure how much good it does B&N themselves in the long run and I'm not sure most Fire buyers care one way or the other.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

The screen of the Glowlight Plus is good, I forget how the memory is allocated but I want to say it wasn't limiting. But the casing is a huge turnoff for me. The metal backing makes it slick, and there were issues with it possibly causing the device to be too cold to use for lengthy periods after being in cold temperatures. And the off white textured front bezel makes the screen appear dull to me. I'm not sure why BN switched to white devices other than maybe trying to stick out in a sea of black ones. Of course by this time the ship had already been taking on water and a color change wasn't going to solve the problems Nook was facing.

I can't speak for the device being too cold as I live in Texas. But I seem to remember them quoting some research when they introduced the Nook Glowlight with its white bezel. It's less distracting to the reader, I believe was their claim.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The case for the nook NST was a strange shape and the buttons were rubbery and rather hard to press. I know it's a touch screen, but for those who wanted buttons, they were not good. Also, the partitioned memory was a very bad idea. Then the firmware was atrocious. overall, I think the nook NST was the death of the eInk B&N Readers. Nothing ever got any better.

On the shape, buttons and what have you, you are wrong (see, I can pass off my opinions as fact too).

Anyway, you do go on about the partitioned memory. But since it came with an SD card slot, what does that matter?

Now on the Nook Glowlight, there the partitioned memory *was* a disaster. When I broke my Nook I looked at the Nook Glowlight as a replacement. I liked the design and was okay with the firmware. But the partitioned memory coupled with removal of the SD card pushed me to Kobo.

[barryem]

I have a Nook Glowlight Plus and while there are a couple of things I really dislike it is has a lot going for it.

It's true that the metal case feels cold to the touch but I've read outside with it on cold days and it gets warm when it's held for a while. That is one of the qualities of the device that I don't care for but it's a pretty minor issue.

More important to me are the capacative Home button right where I normally keep my hand to hold the tablet while reading, and which unexpectedly sends me back to the Home screen, usually once a page. I try to remember to avoid that and I do for a page or two and then it's doing it again. The better the book, the more absorbing, the more often it does it.

And the dictionary that has grayed out text, very difficult to read, is another issue. That's possibly the single dumbest decision in the history of technology.

Other than that, it's a really nice device. The screen is excellent. It has a good feature set. The interface is a bit awkward but it's better than my Kobo's interface and almost as good as the Kindle's.

I think with a little more thought the Glowlight Plus could have been the best ereader in the business. It's a very near miss. It is a miss though.

Barry

[MGlitch]

It's funny because I prefer the Kobo interface to Nook. Yes even the new Kobo home screen (which I actually like).

I think the Plus wasn't the deathknell for Nook, rather it came after a string of mistakes in how BN treated Nook and eBooks, and it was enough of a miss that it just seems to have added fuel to the fire that is burning down the Nook.

It'll be interesting to see if/when BN offers up another device. Both Amazon and Kobo have released devices which are upgrades to the ones available when the Plus came out.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I can't speak for the device being too cold as I live in Texas. But I seem to remember them quoting some research when they introduced the Nook Glowlight with its white bezel. It's less distracting to the reader, I believe was their claim.

Can I recommend Amarillo by morning in the winter? Or if you want cold but not that cold, stop 200 miles south of Amarillo in the home of Friday Night Lights.

I know you are a transplant that got lost on I-10 so you couldn't have known parts of Texas actually do get cold.
Says the Texan that knows it snows but doesn't need an H2O because what is rain.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

I think the Plus wasn't the deathknell for Nook, rather it came after a string of mistakes in how BN treated Nook and eBooks, and it was enough of a miss that it just seems to have added fuel to the fire that is burning down the Nook.

I don't really think it's their devices that have hurt Nook at all. It's B&N and their lack of care for their customers when faced with a competitor who's devoted to it's customers.

My post about the Nook was about the device and was a bit off topic for this thread.

Barry

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I disagree here. Using both stores' fifty dollar cheapie tablets as a comparison, I can say that the Nook tablet is just an Android tablet with B&N's launcher installed. It comes with the Play Store installed and you can change the launcher if you like.

The Fire tablet runs Fire OS, a modified version of Android. You have to hack it to install the Play Store and you can't change the launcher.

Sideloading is allowed on both, as far as I know, though with the Play Store, sideloading doesn't matter much to me.

Context, context...

We're talking historical mistakes.
Past tense. Circa 2012, not 2017...

Back when B&N was spending time and effort trying to create an app store to squeeze every last penny out of buyers. Only developers never bit. And eventually they gave up.

B&N no longer makes tablets, anyway. They just rebrand a generic that already comes with standard android. That is not the strategy that cost them tens of millions in write downs on perfectly fine hardware.

Edit: http://the-digital-reader.com/2013/0...ket-share-down

What's even worse is that B&N also mentions that they took back $21 million in
"channel partner returns" and also had to pay those partners another $15 million
in promotional allowances. There's also $59 million of additional inventory
charges for stock B&N bought but could not sell, so it seems the crack I made a
couple days ago about B&N's after-Christmas clearance sales wasn't a joke; it's
true.

Not only did B&N have to accept back something like 50 to 100 thousand unsold
units, they also had to pay for the privilege of their partners not selling
them. And they still have to do something about the 200 to 300 thousand unsold
units they already had on hand. Ouch.

Five years back, both Amazon and B&N tried to copy Apple's iPad app store strategy with proprietary Android derivative tablets. Amazon pulled it off. B&N didn't. Because Amazon already had a viable android appstore *before* launching the tablets and they had music and video stores. And because they allowed sideloading for those apps not in their store. Back then it mattered.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Can I recommend Amarillo by morning in the winter? Or if you want cold but not that cold, stop 200 miles south of Amarillo in the home of Friday Night Lights.

I know you are a transplant that got lost on I-10 so you couldn't have known parts of Texas actually do get cold.
Says the Texan that knows it snows but doesn't need an H2O because what is rain.

This is true. I rarely get out of the ever humid Houston area of Texas. I tend to only see the rest of it if I'm driving through it on a road trip home.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by barryem

More important to me are the capacative Home button right where I normally keep my hand to hold the tablet while reading, and which unexpectedly sends me back to the Home screen, usually once a page. I try to remember to avoid that and I do for a page or two and then it's doing it again. The better the book, the more absorbing, the more often it does it.

Yeah, from a usability standpoint, they would have been better off moving the home button to the stop of the screen. But that would look ugly, so I understand their decision. Maybe they just shouldn't have made it capacitive. I never had a problem with the raised 'n' button on my Nook ST.

And the dictionary that has grayed out text, very difficult to read, is another issue. That's possibly the single dumbest decision in the history of technology.

I like to think Xerox's giving away the mouse and GUI concept or Blockbuster refusing to buy Netflix were the dumbest decisions in the history of technology. But I'll list the Nook home button as number three

[AnemicOak]

I actually found myself in a B&N yesterday surprisingly. This particular store still has their Nook display front and center as you enter the store and I heard two calls over the store intercom for calls for a Nook specialist. I also saw that they have reduced the toy section from what it was. They seemed to be doing a booming business for 5:00 on Tuesday.

While there I checked out the current Nook reader again and I could totally see myself using the device, if I was in the market, as it seems quite nice. I wonder if they ever fixed the issues with the device and ADE.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

I actually found myself in a B&N yesterday surprisingly. This particular store still has their Nook display front and center as you enter the store and I heard two calls over the store intercom for calls for a Nook specialist. I also saw that they have reduced the toy section from what it was. They seemed to be doing a booming business for 5:00 on Tuesday.

While there I checked out the current Nook reader again and I could totally see myself using the device, if I was in the market, as it seems quite nice. I wonder if they ever fixed the issues with the device and ADE.

Yeah, when I saw it in person, I thought the Glowlight Plus was a very nice device and would have bought one if I hadn't just purchased my Aura.

Barry's warning about the capacitive button's placement is something to think about though.

[MGlitch]

They fixed it, but even the fix has issues from what I've read. Sideloading is apparently a bit of a headache for Mac users since the version of android used doesn't play well with OS X