Announcing NOOK Simple Touch with GlowLight

[AlanNJ Inspired Bibliophile]

I'm thinking this isn't necessarily about getting old customers to upgrade as it is about getting new customers.  Lots of people are still "on the fence" about e-readers.

[ilexq]

I'm sure you're right. It just seems like it's a little too late in the game for a massive influx of newcomers to e-readers. I could very well be wrong, though. I'm just cynical and curmudgeonly.

*shaking cane at all the kids on her lawn*

[MacMcK1957]

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ilexq wrote:

I'm sure you're right. It just seems like it's a little too late in the game for a massive influx of newcomers to e-readers. I could very well be wrong, though. I'm just cynical and curmudgeonly.

*shaking cane at all the kids on her lawn*

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I strongly disagree. I could offer two simple facts: Currently the majority of people do not have ereaders. In ten years the majority of people will have ereaders. The growth curve is temporarily flatter, as the early adopters have them now, but eventually they will be as pervasive as cell phones and flat screen TVs.

[AlanNJ Inspired Bibliophile]

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ilexq wrote:

I'm sure you're right. It just seems like it's a little too late in the game for a massive influx of newcomers to e-readers. I could very well be wrong, though. I'm just cynical and curmudgeonly.

*shaking cane at all the kids on her lawn*

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Now wait just a second here!  I'M cynical and curmudgeonly too!  Just ask my wife and everyone who knows me!  Sheesh!  

[RJR443]

Some ground rules here, please. You're never too young to be a true cynic, but to be curmudgeonly, I submit that you have to have passed your 60th.  I don't want the world cluttered up with a passel of  whippersnapper would-be curmudgeons.

[AlanNJ Inspired Bibliophile]

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RJR443 wrote:

Some ground rules here, please. You're never too young to be a true cynic, but to be curmudgeonly, I submit that you have to have passed your 60th.  I don't want the world cluttered up with a passel of  whippersnapper would-be curmudgeons.

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At 56 can I at least be an honorary curmudgeon?

[wordsandmelodi…]

Perhaps you are a curmudgeon in training.  It's an important job -- you need to be sure you're doing it right.

[petesnook]

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MacMcK1957 wrote:

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ilexq wrote:

I'm sure you're right. It just seems like it's a little too late in the game for a massive influx of newcomers to e-readers. I could very well be wrong, though. I'm just cynical and curmudgeonly.

*shaking cane at all the kids on her lawn*

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I strongly disagree. I could offer two simple facts: Currently the majority of people do not have ereaders. In ten years the majority of people will have ereaders. The growth curve is temporarily flatter, as the early adopters have them now, but eventually they will be as pervasive as cell phones and flat screen TVs.

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Yep. An article in the LA Times Sunday indicated only 22 percent of 18-49 year olds and 20 percent of 50-and-older have ereaders specifically designed for books such as Kindles and Nooks.  (The survey was of 1500 registered California voters last month.)  So there is a huge untapped market, not only of adults, but also with the kid generation as it matures.

[RJR443]

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AlanNJ wrote:

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At 56 can I at least be an honorary curmudgeon?

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AlanNJ, you can be an apprentice curmudgeon if you want.  But not a full-fledged one yet.  Gotta have standards, you know. Otherwise chaos reigns.

[Sun_Cat]

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RJR443 wrote:

 Gotta have standards, you know. Otherwise chaos reigns.

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Yes, but you know without chaos there is order.

[bobstro]

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petesnook wrote:

[...] Yep. An article in the LA Times Sunday indicated only 22 percent of 18-49 year olds and 20 percent of 50-and-older have ereaders specifically designed for books such as Kindles and Nooks.  (The survey was of 1500 registered California voters last month.)  So there is a huge untapped market, not only of adults, but also with the kid generation as it matures.

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I like the dedicated devices for the advantages they provide over general purpose tablets. However, if the general purpose tablets incorporate those features (screen readability, battery life and weight), I don't really care what I read on.

I think it's a bit over-optimistic to look at the numbers of people without a reader and view that as potential sales. I can remember the predictions that netbooks would be hot sellers to all those folks who didn't want a fully-laden computer.

B&M has been producing winners with their hardware lately, even if I don't agree with their software decisions. So long as their dedicated devices offer compelling advantages, I hope they sell well. I do think they're going to be squeezed as more powerful tablets with similar features drop in price.

[orb9220]

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RJR443 wrote:

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AlanNJ wrote:

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At 56 can I at least be an honorary curmudgeon?

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AlanNJ, you can be an apprentice curmudgeon if you want.  But not a full-fledged one yet.  Gotta have standards, you know. Otherwise chaos reigns.

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Hey I want to join to as 57 in 26 days.. And where do I find the Sub-Forum "Curmudgeon's Nookies Corner" ?

.

[MacMcK1957]

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orb9220 wrote:

Hey I want to join to as 57 in 26 days.. And where do I find the Sub-Forum "Curmudgeon's Nookies Corner" ?

.

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Curmudgeons don't get nookie.  It's one of the things that makes them so cranky. 

[tonyabionda]

 I'll be replacing my Nook Color and my NST with this new one.  I'm a night reader and this will reduce the number of devices I take when I travel.

I'm a total sucker because they stuck with the same specs that I absolutely HATE!  

"2GB Holds up to 1,000 books (1GB for content; 750 MB reserved for B&N content)"

I still don't have 1,000 books in my library, but I maxed out my B&N content on my NST a long time ago.

I finally did sideload and archive over half of my books.  Can't figure out how to get the archived books to not show in my library so they are all listed twice.  No perfect solution.  

[LoganK]

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bobstro wrote:

I like the dedicated devices for the advantages they provide over general purpose tablets. However, if the general purpose tablets incorporate those features (screen readability, battery life and weight), I don't really care what I read on.

I think it's a bit over-optimistic to look at the numbers of people without a reader and view that as potential sales. I can remember the predictions that netbooks would be hot sellers to all those folks who didn't want a fully-laden computer.

B&M has been producing winners with their hardware lately, even if I don't agree with their software decisions. So long as their dedicated devices offer compelling advantages, I hope they sell well. I do think they're going to be squeezed as more powerful tablets with similar features drop in price.

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My problem is always that the dedicated readers have better software than the general purpose devices. Nook Study is awesome, but not available on most smaller devices. The Kindle software was also pretty close, in terms of features, the last time I saw it, but it's just now catching up in a lot of ways.

And those predictions about netbooks? They became true. And still are true. I'm not sure how 2011 finished out, but netbook sales easily eclipsed tablet sales at the start of the year, but everyone stopped talking about them because they were yesterday's news (and sales were flattening, but that could partially be blamed on media and marketing driving sales in newer areas).

[bobstro]

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LoganK wrote:

My problem is always that the dedicated readers have better software than the general purpose devices. Nook Study is awesome, but not available on most smaller devices. The Kindle software was also pretty close, in terms of features, the last time I saw it, but it's just now catching up in a lot of ways.

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That is just software, though. I am hoping B&N update their Android NOOK app to provide the same features as the native reader provided on the B&N NC/NT. There's no reason they can't. I am curious about the ongoing beta test that was mentioned here a couple of months ago.

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And those predictions about netbooks? They became true. And still are true. I'm not sure how 2011 finished out, but netbook sales easily eclipsed tablet sales at the start of the year, but everyone stopped talking about them because they were yesterday's news (and sales were flattening, but that could partially be blamed on media and marketing driving sales in newer areas).

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Hmm. We must be reading different sources:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/242635/tablet_sales_overtook_netbook_sales_in_q2_2011.html

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Desktops-and-Notebooks/iPad-Whips-Netbook-Sales-as-Android-Phones-Invade-As...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2012/feb/03/netbooks-pc-canalys-tablet

I'm a netbook fan, and I don't expect them to go away, but as tablets gain power, and prices drop, the netbook as we know it today will probably undergo a significant transformation (in a good way). Hybrid devices just as the Asus Transformer Prime with it's detachable keyboard/battery dock is interesting (though flawed, sadly).

[LoganK]

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bobstro wrote:

I'm a netbook fan, and I don't expect them to go away, but as tablets gain power, and prices drop, the netbook as we know it today will probably undergo a significant transformation (in a good way). Hybrid devices just as the Asus Transformer Prime with it's detachable keyboard/battery dock is interesting (though flawed, sadly).

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Your links indicate that netbook sales started to fall at the end of last year and tablet sales increased. That seems reasonable as people already owned netbooks and tablets were newer, different, and pushed more by pretty much everyone. The prices on real laptops also fell dramatically in response to low netbook prices. Just because netbooks didn't stay king of the hill doesn't mean the prediction failed to come true. Markets shift.

I'm curious: what is the flaw with the Asus Transformer? I have quite a few friends with the non-Prime model (essentially the same concept) that love the form factor and find them incredibly useful. I also really like the concept, but I'm not willing to switch so drastically to a limited mobile OS. However, I don't know enough about the hybrid tablet/netbook form factor to identify the flaws...

[bobstro]

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LoganK wrote:

Your links indicate that netbook sales started to fall at the end of last year and tablet sales increased. That seems reasonable as people already owned netbooks and tablets were newer, different, and pushed more by pretty much everyone. The prices on real laptops also fell dramatically in response to low netbook prices. Just because netbooks didn't stay king of the hill doesn't mean the prediction failed to come true. Markets shift.

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My point was that the original predictions for netbooks was that they'd be the low-end option for the masses. Instead, the tablets took over. Having flown over 75 cross-country flights last year, I can tell you that in an informal poll conducted while working my way back to my seat from the lavatory, I have only seen a handful of netbooks, but every other seat seems to have a tablet.

Based on that, I think that the notion that every potential customer without a dedicated reader today will eventually wind up with one might be overly optimistic.

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I'm curious: what is the flaw with the Asus Transformer? I have quite a few friends with the non-Prime model (essentially the same concept) that love the form factor and find them incredibly useful. I also really like the concept, but I'm not willing to switch so drastically to a limited mobile OS. However, I don't know enough about the hybrid tablet/netbook form factor to identify the flaws...

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From what I'm reading, the GPS implementation is badly flawed. They're providing a free dongle to resolve the issue, but it looks pretty silly.

[Byteguy]

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bobstro wrote:

Having flown over 75 cross-country flights last year, I can tell you that in an informal poll conducted while working my way back to my seat from the lavatory, I have only seen a handful of netbooks, but every other seat seems to have a tablet.

Your sample is skewed.  Netbooks don't work without the internet so they couldn''t be used on a flight with no wi-fi.  Of course, you wouldn't see them.

However, I don't know anyone with a netbook.  Most of my friends either use their smartphone or have jumped to a tablet to supplement their regular computer.

[bobstro]

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Byteguy wrote:Your sample is skewed.  Netbooks don't work without the internet so they couldn''t be used on a flight with no wi-fi.  Of course, you wouldn't see them.

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Erm... A netbook works without Internet just like a tablet does. I used one for a bit until my company got me a smaller laptop. Wifi is available on many flights, but overpriced on US Air.