B&N's Nook Is A Kindle Killer: 5 Reasons Why
Barnes & Noble's new Nook e-reader is the e-reader that competitors must now beat. So long Kindle 2, it was nice knowing you, but a better reader has come along. And just in time for the holidays, too. — If Amazon doesn't have a new model …
Context & Ripple Effects
The Nook arrives after a 2008 argument that e-book readers faced fundamental adoption obstacles. Its launch turns that broad category question into a direct Barnes & Noble–Amazon contest, with the Kindle 2 having reached the same $259 price point earlier in October.
Amazon had also made the Kindle 2 available globally, so Barnes & Noble’s challenge is not simply to undercut the incumbent. The significance is that a major bookseller is offering buyers a competing e-reader at price parity.
First-order effects
- Barnes & Noble gains an e-reader product with which to compete directly against Amazon’s Kindle 2 during the holiday buying period.
- Amazon can no longer rely on the Kindle 2’s $259 price as a clear differentiator against Barnes & Noble’s newly introduced Nook.
Second-order effects
- The contest shifts competitive attention toward reader design and the buying experience, since the two devices are presented at the same price.
- Barnes & Noble’s entry puts the earlier skepticism about e-book-reader demand under a sharper commercial test: two major booksellers are committing competing products to the category.
Third-order effects
- If major booksellers continue to treat dedicated readers as strategic products, e-book hardware competition will be shaped by book retailers’ ability to pair devices with their own customer relationships rather than by device price alone.
The trend: Dedicated e-readers are moving from a category questioned on demand into a retailer-led platform contest between Amazon and Barnes & Noble.