With the Kindle Fire selling like hots cakes, you just knew Barnes & Noble would have to strike back with its Nook lineup. The company introduced an 8 GB version of its Nook Tablet with a $200 price tag to try and cool that Fire down (alright, that was bad).
The latest Nook Tablet is similar to the one released last year but it has less storage and RAM to account for its lower price. You can still look forward to a dual-core 1 GHz processor, a vivid 7-inch screen and access to the Barnes & Noble app store, which features apps like Angry Birds. If you’re upset by the smaller amount of onboard storage, you’ll be happy to know there’s a microSD card that can be used for expanding the memory.
Barnes & Noble has been devastated by Internet retailer like Amazon in its traditional book-selling business but the Nook has been a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy financial outlook. The company also has an advantage over Amazon in that its stores can serve as demo stations for the Nook Tablet – I was just in a store yesterday and played with one for about 20 minutes.
We have to see how Barnes & Noble can keep up with Amazon and other tablet makers as the year moves on, as we’re expecting a larger, more powerful Kindle over the next few months. I doubt the Nook will try to be a full-fledged iPad competitor but I still think there’s room for improvement moving forward.
Barnes & Noble also introduced a version of its Nook Color for $169. The Nook Color and Nook Tablet both run a customized version of Android.
[Via Barnes & Noble]