Barnes & Noble yesterday managed to considerably close the feature gap between eReader and tablet with the unveiling of its new Nookcolor eReader. The new Barnes & Noble eReader will sell for $249, with pre-orders starting today at www.nookcolor.com.
"With Nookcolor, we've combined the functionality and convenience of a 7-inch portable wireless tablet with the reader-centricity of a dedicated eReader, and employed a breakthrough color screen technology that will wow customers," said William Lynch, CEO of Barnes & Noble, in a press release.
The Nookcolor runs on Google's Android OS and features a 7-inch touchscreen and 8GB of internal memory, which can be expanded with an external card. But the real departure from the original Nook is the Nookcolor's tablet-like features, such as full Web browsing over Wi-Fi, support for Pandora streaming radio and the ability to share portions of books through integration with social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
The screen displays more than 16 million colors and boasts an accelerometer for viewing in landscape mode. The device measures 8.1 inches (height) by 5 inches (width) by 0.48 inches (depth) and weighs in at 15.8 ounces.
Newspapers and magazines are automatically delivered via Wi-Fi upon publication. The company did not say whether 3G capability will be added in the future. The original black-and-white Nook will remain at $149.
The Nookcolor appears to radically change the landscape of the eReader market, blurring the lines of competition between tablets like the iPad and other eReaders, which previously sat comfortably in distinctly different device categories.
Amazon's CEO, Jeff Bezos, has been vocal about his company's preference to refrain from using color on its Kindle device. At a shareholder meeting in May of 2010, Bezos said that Amazon would continue to focus on black-and-white e-ink displays, preferring to refrain from competing with Apple's iPad.
Bezos contended that while it would be easy to put an LCD screen in a Kindle, the reading experience would not be on par with that produced by e-ink technology. The industry will have to wait and see whether the Nookcolor gives Bezos pause to reconsider Amazon's strategy going forward.