WHAT: Nook e-reader
Bookseller Barnes & Noble dropped the price of its Nook e-reader Monday and added a new Wi-Fi only model for just $149. The price of the flagship Nook, released in December to tepid reviews, dropped from $259 to $199.
The Nook has gained a lot of ground in recent months, updating its software to fix some of the early bugs. I've been testing the Nook for a week or so and have been very impressed.
The price drop is certainly a decided effort to gain some ground against the market-leading Amazon Kindle e-reader, which quickly followed suit with a price drop of its own - down to $189.
The latest generation Kindle has gone largely unchanged since its February 2009 release and a refresh is expected soon. E-readers, are facing considerable pressure from the emerging tablet market - led by Apple's iPad at $499 - to pull down on its price points.
The Nook features a full-color touchscreen bellow the E-Ink display and comes with 2 GB of memory which should hold up to 1,500 books, newspa,pers and magazines, according to the Barnes & Noble website.
DETAILS: www.barnesandnoble.com/nook, $149 for Wi-Fi only, $199 for 3G/Wi-Fi version.
- Mark W. Smith, Detroit Free Press