Nook Color review
It's hard to believe we're already writing a review of the Nook Color, considering Barnes & Noble's first foray into the e-reader world was revealed just over a year ago. In that time, the company has gone from no presence in e-books to owning 20 percent of the marketshare …
Context & Ripple Effects
Barnes & Noble went from zero e-book presence to 20 percent of the market in about a year, after entering the category for Christmas 2009 explicitly to rival Amazon's Kindle. The October leak that the next Nook would be an Android-based, full-color device, which the company never commented on at the time, is now confirmed hardware sitting on the review desk.
What makes the review consequential is the framing around it: even before launch, reviewers were reassessing the device as potentially a more capable tablet than its restricted app story suggested — which puts it in competition not just with e-ink readers but with the low end of the tablet market.
First-order effects
- Barnes & Noble heads into the holiday shopping season with a color, Android-based device at a time when it already holds 20 percent of the e-book market, applying direct pressure on Amazon's grayscale Kindle line.
Second-order effects
- If buyers treat the Nook Color as a budget tablet rather than only an e-reader, Amazon has to respond beyond incremental e-ink updates, and magazine and children's-book publishers gain a color storefront they lacked on dedicated readers.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the dedicated e-reader category blurs into inexpensive Android tablets, with competition decided by bookstore ecosystems and content lock-in rather than screen technology alone.
The trend: Dedicated e-readers are converging with budget Android tablets, shifting competition among booksellers from display hardware to content ecosystems.