Wi-Fi Only Nook for $150 in Best Buy
Posted in: e-books, Media Players, nook, Today's Chili, wi-fi
Barnes and Noble has just taken the e-book market a notch further towards the mainstream with a new Wi-Fi-only Nook for $150: $50 less than Wi-Fi+3G model, and $110 less than you’d pay in a Barnes & Noble store for the original version [UPDATE: B&N will also drop the price of the 3G Nook to $200].
The new Nook is available from Best Buy right now, and apart from the lack of a 3G radio it is almost exactly the same as its big brother: 2GB on-board memory supplemented by a microSD slot, a 6-inch e-ink display along with the vestigial color touch-screen, a ten-day battery life and support for most popular picture and e-book file formats, including the EPUB format eschewed by Amazon for the rival Kindle. The only visual difference is the change of the back cover from gray to white.
This is great news, and a very sensible decision from B&N. Who, after all, needs to be able to buy a book at any time, in any place? Just stock up with a few titles and wait until you find the next Wi-Fi hotspot (or pop into Starbucks where the internet is now free). And if you really do need that 3G connection, well, you can just pay a little extra (and just $50 extra, too, not the $130 premium Apple loads onto the 3G iPad).
The trend is clear. Basic grayscale e-book readers are set to become a commodity device, probably occupying a large but cheap specialty niche between tablets and cellphones. We wouldn’t be too surprised if the Nook also lost that novelty touch-screen and dropped below $100.
Wi-Fi-only Nook eReader [Best Buy]
See Also:
- Barnes & Noble Nook
- Barnes & Noble Unveils Kindle-Killing, Dual-Screen 'Nook' E-Reader …
- Nook Software Update Adds Web Browser, Chess
- Best Buy to Sell Nook, Target Bags Kindle?
- Could a $50 'Paperback' Kindle Beat the iPad?
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