James Fallows at the Atlantic has his detailed Kindle/Nook smackdown and a note from someone from Barnes and Noble – both discussing Barnes & Noble’s Strategy.
Barnes & Noble’s Nook Vs Kindle Strategy
Here is how B&N feel they can sNooker the Kindle -
- More open with ePub, Android OS, and lending
- My guess is Amazon will copy lending
- In store WiFi. Users can go in stores and access lots of content from entire books to free publications. Len Riggio, founder and CEO of B&N fought to have comfortable seating in the stores and has prevailed against naysayers thought it would waste valuable space. I think you’ll see even more space allotted to this. There’s lots of space devoted to music that will be replaced with nook areas.
- The color touch display really brings the ease of use to ebooks much as Apple did with iPhones.
- Much larger bookstore that includes Google books
- Holding. Easier to grip with a contoured and soft touch back. Works equally well for right and left-handed.”
Firstly, there are a few factors more important than those listed above.
- James Fallows’ take is that the main issues are device price and ebook range and price. He thinks those are more important than what B&N thinks. I agree completely.
- Ease of use and usability are also more important. More on that below.
As far as Barnes & Noble’s strategy sheet -
- Open is important. However, not the #1 item. Also, Kindle does let you convert ePub and other formats and read them so it’s not exactly completely closed.
- Amazon has no need to copy a ‘lend an ebook once for 14 days’ feature. B&N should have gotten Publishers on-board before promoting the feature so much.
- In Store WiFi is B&N trying to leverage the Nook and Stores at the same time. Might work – No idea whether it will.
- Color Display to browse books is good. Would be careful about comparing it to the iPhone though. Not a good idea to compare to one of the best user interfaces and devices ever.
- Google Books can be converted for the Kindle – via Amazon’s conversion service (works for PDFs) or Calibre (for ePub, PDF doesn’t convert well). The whole problem with using ‘free books’ is they’re free. Sites like Gutenberg and ManyBooks have better ebook conversions of public domain titles. They only have 25,000 titles – however, that covers most of the books you’re probably interested in.
- Holding? Strange that B&N are talking about holding instead of the storage card or the replaceable battery.
That means 2 good features, 2 might be good features and 2 things that don’t really matter. However, they miss range and price of ebooks and convenience of use and of buying.
James Fallows hits the nail on the head
Do read his take – Exhaustive Kindle/Nook Smackdown.
The main points he identifies are -
- B&N meeting Amazon’s convenience for book buying via wireless.
- Range of Books.
- Price of Device and of eBooks.
- A killer feature like handwriting recognition.
- A significant minor bundle of features like folders, enhanced search, working with notes on your PC, etc.
He also notes -
- Google Books connection is not a big deal as you can get those for the Kindle too.
Agree with him. There are three main areas -
- Range and Price of eBooks (since Kindle and Nook are both at $259). Just posted on Kindle Vs Nook eBook Prices yesterday and they’re equal on bestseller prices and Kindle wins for 25% to 40% of the remaining books. As far as range, B&N currently have 50K Nook ebooks available. If and when their 500K+ new ebooks claim materializes Amazon will have something big to worry about.
- Ease of Use and Convenience – In addition to the wireless delivery (already present) Nook has to maintain the focus of the Kindle on reading and the extreme ease of use.
- Killer Features (single feature or combination of features). Nook’s LendMe misses because Publishers are throttling it. The expanded memory and replaceable battery and PC, Mac, Blackberry support would have been a killer combination of features if supplemented with Folders.
It’s not just that B&N forgot to add Folders -
- By announcing their features 5-6 weeks before Barnes & Noble have given Amazon a lot of time to counter.
- Kindle for PC has been announced (for next month) and Kindle for Mac has been confirmed (in a few months).
Which leaves Barnes & Noble with no killer feature (sorry, lend an ebook once is NOT a killer feature).
Amazon also has the opportunity to release Kindle 3 or significantly update Kindle 2 software with a killer feature of their own (a combination of speech to text, a journal/notepad feature, folders).
Nook’s Strategy Sheet missed the biggest point
Nook worked itself into a tie with the Kindle. However, by giving Amazon 5-6 weeks to counter (5-6 weeks with NO Nook availability) they might have killed themselves.
Perhaps the most important part of B&N’s positioning (which is missing completely from their strategy cheat sheet) ought to have been -
- Have a possibly killer feature (LendMe) and a killer combination of smaller features (Memory, Nook for PC, Nook for Mac, Replaceable Battery) AND Be as secretive as Apple and have a surprise release and completely stun Amazon.
It’s taken 1-2 weeks for people to realize that LendMe is not the feature we thought it was and that 500K Google Books are not a big deal. By mid November an improved Kindle (or a new Kindle 3) might once again be the clear #1 choice.
Filed under: Barnes Noble Nook | Tagged: kindle strategy, kindle vs nook
Okay, you are writing this like you are omniscient. It is obvious that people think that lending is a killer feature by the amount of orders the nook has received. Don’t be putting negative comments towards the nook because you already blew away your money on the Kindle.
Really – would you say being able to lend a book once, for 14 days, to another person is a killer feature?
What would you consider the Kindle’s 6 devices at a time family sharing feature?
It’s a blog. There are comments. Surely someone who thought they were omniscient would leave no room for dissent.
I can not thank you enough for your nook vs kindle reviews. I got that nook fever and ordered mine a while back, expected to come on Christmas.. but after my relative got himself a kindle, I think I will cancel my order after I look at the nook in-store. I got attracted to the glitter of the nook and all that news coverage it got and overlooked alot of important features.
Nook: looks good,SD,more open format, touchscreen?
Kindle: web browsing,text2speech,longer battery life,alot thinner.
Yes, the kindle2 is not new, but its alot cheaper (220$)
and has the almost everything nook does. A touchscreen for me is useless as it will drain the battery and browsing books via e-ink was just fine. I’m a student, so the web browser and greater battery life really got me. Sure it’s slow, but I can browse most news sites and be able to use Wikipedia. I thought the text2speech was crappy, until I tried it. Sure, the female voice isn’t very human sounding
but the male voice sounded perfectly acceptable. Perfect for those breakfast moments..
The kindle definitely has negatives and isn’t perfect, but it wins over nook for me. That’s my two cents. Thank you again for an amazing blog.
(I think I’ll go cancel that order hehe)
I am debating about the Kindle2 vs Nook, plan to purchase something this month. I’d like to know more about the Kindle’s family sharing feature (my daughter has a Kindle2). Does that mean we could share each others libraries? What is that feature?
Debra, up to 6 kindles can share an account. It doesn’t have to be family – anyone you trust with your account.
Your daughter and you would be able to share each other’s libraries. Also, you could read the same book at the same time. Up to 5 devices can have the same book at the same time.