Barnes & Noble Takes Aim at Amazon With New HD Nooks
Yesterday, Barnes & Noble revealed its plans for a Nook-branded online video store. — Today, the company is showing off the products it hopes you'll be watching that video on: New Nook tablets, called the Nook HD and Nook HD+.
Context & Ripple Effects
Barnes & Noble had been pushing Nook sales since 2010 and added a lower-cost touch-enabled reader in 2011. The new tablets extend that effort beyond dedicated reading devices.
The hardware arrives one day after Barnes & Noble outlined a Nook-branded online video service. Amazon had introduced Kindle Fire HD models in comparable 7-inch and 8.9-inch formats the prior week, putting the two retailers into a more direct contest for media-tablet buyers.
First-order effects
- Barnes & Noble can pair Nook HD and Nook HD+ hardware with its video store, giving Nook buyers a device-and-content proposition rather than an e-reader alone.
- Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD line gains a direct Nook rival at both the smaller- and larger-screen ends of the tablet market.
Second-order effects
- Competition between Barnes & Noble and Amazon shifts toward the strength of their connected media offerings, not only device specifications, because each retailer is using tablets as a route into digital content.
- Nook’s earlier touch-enabled e-reader launch becomes part of a broader product ladder, with Barnes & Noble able to steer existing Nook customers toward higher-capability devices.
Third-order effects
- If retailer-backed tablet lines continue to be paired with proprietary media services, hardware becomes a distribution endpoint for digital storefronts, concentrating competition among companies that control both the device and the catalog.
The trend: Retailers are turning branded tablets into ecosystem products that connect device sales with recurring digital-media distribution.