One year after Amazon undercut the tablet market with a $49.99 Kindle Fire, Barnes & Noble is launching its own $49.99 Nook tablet running on the Android operating system.
The new 7-inch Nook tablet will be available from Black Friday (November 25). It features a screen with 171ppi resolution (1024 x 600), front and rear-facing cameras, a soft-touch back, Bluetooth connectivity and a quad-core processor.
B&N Chief Digital Officer Fred Argir says, “We’re extremely excited to introduce our most affordable Nook ever, just in time for the holiday shopping season, so customers can give their loved ones the gift of reading forever for less.”
Users will be able to download most Nook ebooks directly on to a micro SD card. The tablet runs Marshmallow (Android 6.0) and has full access to the Google Play Store.
The device is equipped with B&N Readouts, an innovative feature that is claimed to bring the pleasures of bookstore browsing and discovery to the digital sector. It uses Barnes & Noble’s content catalog and bookseller knowledge to deliver two-minute book excerpts as well as full articles from current issues of popular periodicals. The mobile-friendly quick reads are tailored to users’ favorite genres and subjects and optimized for sharing.
Customers can also join Serial Reads, Barnes & Noble’s popular program of free fiction serials through which subscribers enjoy a new book every month, delivered free in daily chapters directly to their devices. Titles are hand-picked by Barnes & Noble editors across genres and a variety of authors.
Amazon has had massive success with its $49.99 Kindle Fire which was launched in September 2015 and was a smash hit during the Black Friday and holiday sales season.
Barnes & Noble has had a lot of problems in the hardware sector and quit making new Nooks back in June 2014 after losing millions of dollars in developing and producing the devices. It teamed up with Samsung which brought out a series of co-branded Galaxy Tabs which are still available.
You can find out more about the Nook Tablet 7″ at Barnes & Noble.
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