Nook Tablet?? Disappearing from the B&N website?

[Rasyr]

I was just surfing these forums, when I found a link to a page comparing the different Nooks, so I took a look, and there was no Nook Tablet there.

This prompted me to look at the Nook menu item on the menu bar, and it appears that Nook Tablet has been completely removed from that as well (I did find the Nook Tablet Support link at the bottom of the page).

Anybody know why they removed those pages? I was looking forward to see the comparison of the Nook Tablet (which I purchased for myself as a xmas gift - and which my wife is making me wait until xmas to open) with the other Nooks.

[Science_man]

They phased those out ,sold what ever inventory they still had,  and are concentrating on the HD tablets now.   Didn't realize it either until someone else mentioned they were no longer on the website, shortly before I purchased one for one of my kids. 

[Mercury_Glitch]

Yeah, they are now phased out.

A -quick-comparison of the NT vs the HD

Both are 7 inch screens, but the tablet is a heavier device with less resolution.

They have about the same battery life (10hrs w/ WiFi off)

I believe the CPU in the HD is a newer generation than the one in the NT.  It certainly feels faster.

The HD has all the software features of the tablet, but also has profiles so you can share your nook with family/friends and not see their books/apps/movies also you can limit kids access to various things on the Nook.  BN Video, rent or buy movies from B&N with the option to stream or download the content.  Scrapbooking, you can pull pages from magazines, newspapers, etc and add them to a scrapbook. 

As an aside, if you purchased the NT recently, I believe November 15th but don't quote me on that, you can exchange it towards a Nook HD.  It may be in your best interest to do so as the cables for the NT/NC are less than amazing and will eventually become rather difficult to find.

[5ivedom]

It's strange. I noticed the links gone too a few days ago.

My understanding was that Color would be phased out and Tablet would stay. However, it seems B&N is phasing out both Tablet and Color.

Or perhaps it's finding that people are massively picking Tablet over HD and thus want to sell Tablet only at stores???

I think Nook Tablet is a very very attractive device, especially if they drop the price a bit more. They really should continue making and selling them. Also the OS is very stable, compared to HD and HD+ which is still going through early bug fixing etc.

[keriflur]

---

5ivedom wrote:

It's strange. I noticed the links gone too a few days ago.

My understanding was that Color would be phased out and Tablet would stay. However, it seems B&N is phasing out both Tablet and Color.

---

I think the announcement was that they were phasing out the Color and were undecided on the tablet.  I guess they're decided now.

I do think it's strange that there was no announcement of the decision.  Usually there's some little EOL press release.

[DeanGibson Distinguished Bibliophile]

---

keriflur wrote:

I do think it's strange that there was no announcement of the decision.

---

Strange but not unusual.  Was there an EOL announcement for the Nook 1stEd?

[keriflur]

---

DeanGibson wrote:

---

keriflur wrote:

I do think it's strange that there was no announcement of the decision.

---

Strange but not unusual.  Was there an EOL announcement for the Nook 1stEd?

---

I remember there was one.  Some people were very upset.  There were a lot of posts from users worried that the announcement meant an end to support for the device.

[DeanGibson Distinguished Bibliophile]

---

keriflur wrote:

---

DeanGibson wrote:

---

keriflur wrote:

I do think it's strange that there was no announcement of the decision.

---

Strange but not unusual.  Was there an EOL announcement for the Nook 1stEd?

---

I remember there was one.  Some people were very upset.  There were a lot of posts from users worried that the announcement meant an end to support for the device.

---

See what happens???  B&N makes a EOL announcement, and people get upset.  So now, B&N doesn't make any more EOL announcements (the Nook Color statement was a slip of the tongue).

Seriously, this is another area where B&N doesn't try to learn industry practices.  A proper EOL statement gives information about future support (warranty/hardware/software), parts-availability, etc) in order to reassure customers (not to mention reducing support calls).  But B&N's lack of statements is just part of a much larger pattern of non-communication with customers.

I know it's fairly new for B&N to have a continuing role with its customers, but the total lack of any significant communication astounds me.  Example:  No list of what's changed/fixed in releases.  What are they afraid of?  It's not like Amazon (if they cared) couldn't figure out in a day what's changed:  I would think that someone in Amazon planning has (at least) one of every Nook that's been released (and hopefully the same at B&N), and watches what changes.

I have heard that the new HD devices ask if you want to update, so perhaps someone at B&N is listening.  I sure hope so.

[Mercury_Glitch]

So speaking as a store employee I can tell you, the NC and NT are essentially done.  Whatever stock a store has in at this moment is the last that store will have.  Once they sell out, that's it.

I can not speak to how this will affect those who are under the protection plan.  Except that I imagine it will become standard that if your device breaks the stores will not have refurbished NC/NT devices to swap and you'll have to have one shipped to you (while those supplies last).  After the refurbished devices are gone I have no clue what will happen.  I am also not willing to guess at possibilities.

To those freaking out thinking we wont help you in the store with your NC/NT devices let me tell you about one of my customers today.  She had a first edition wifi nook.  She was having issues with books downloading.  I took a look, and it seemed like she had just left wifi off, so I turned that on, tried downloading, and it worked.  I explained to her that she needed to be in wifi to download pre-ordered books when they became available.  The point of this story?  That Nook was the first Nook device we sold, you can't buy it anymore save through used vendors, you can't buy cases or batteries or anything for it on the website or in store, and she was treated the same as if she had brought in a Nook HD+ 32gb (the highest end of the new Nooks). 

As to when it will become hard/impossible to get cases and chargers for the NC/NT I can not say, because I really just don't know.  This is also why I try to urge folks who bought Nook Tablets, especially the 16gb ones, recently to exchange them for 8gb Nook HDs. 

[flyingtoastr Scribe]

After BN runs out of units to do warranty swaps with most likely you'll get a free upgrade to a comprable device (so I would assume a NOOK HD for NC/NT owners). The practice was established with the N1E: if you have a warranty problem with a N1E you've been geting a NST as a replacement for over a year now.

Sales stock for the NC/NT is nearly depleted - BN.com and most of the third party vendors are completely out, and BN stores are just selling down the remainder of their inventory. Cases are still available, though since they are no longer being produced the stock on them will also begin to grow thin. If there is a specific case that you've had your eye on, now would be a good time to buy it.

As for EOL: BN never publicly announced EOL on the N1E either. The closest we got was the announcement for software update 1.6 (and 1.7) that said that BN didn't plan on any further updates past that. So I wouldn't be hopeful for some kind of EOL statement here either. That being said, warranties are still valid until the day they were already set to expire and store staff can and will continue to support the older devices as long as feasable.

[5ivedom]

Thanks for the information Mercury_Glitch and FlyingToastr.

A part of me is sad because Color and Tablet were two of my favorite devices.

Good to know Color and Tablet users will still get good support - that seems to be the main concern of existing users.

[Omnigeek]

---

flyingtoastr wrote:

After BN runs out of units to do warranty swaps with most likely you'll get a free upgrade to a comprable device (so I would assume a NOOK HD for NC/NT owners). The practice was established with the N1E: if you have a warranty problem with a N1E you've been geting a NST as a replacement for over a year now.

---

There's something still under warranty for the N1E?!?!?  o.O

[keriflur]

---

Omnigeek wrote:

---

flyingtoastr wrote:

After BN runs out of units to do warranty swaps with most likely you'll get a free upgrade to a comprable device (so I would assume a NOOK HD for NC/NT owners). The practice was established with the N1E: if you have a warranty problem with a N1E you've been geting a NST as a replacement for over a year now.

---

There's something still under warranty for the N1E?!?!?  o.O

---

If you bought one new just before EOL and got the two year warranty, you've got almost another year of  warranty left.

[Rasyr]

sigh....

I just bought my Nook Tablet, haven't even broken the seal on the plastic wrap on the box yet (won't until next Tuesday) and it is apparently already obsolete....

I simply have to laugh at the absurdity of it...

While I have absolutely no problems with the NT being phased out (would have still purchased it over the Nook HD because of the features vs cost aspects that I was also looking at), it would have been nice to know about before hand.

I also wish that they would have at least archived the old Nook Tablet pages, as then I wouldn't have been taken by surprise when I went to look and couldn't find them.

[keriflur]

---

flyingtoastr wrote:

As for EOL: BN never publicly announced EOL on the N1E either. The closest we got was the announcement for software update 1.6 (and 1.7) that said that BN didn't plan on any further updates past that. So I wouldn't be hopeful for some kind of EOL statement here either.

---

Are you sure about that?  I seem to recall that there was an announcement or public statement when they stopped production.  This resulted in lots of questions about future updates and support, and it was announced that support would continue and that there would be one more update in the coming weeks.  That update was 1.6, which of course broke SD card functions and caused some folks to suspect that B&N was intentionally crippling devices to force folks to upgrade to the NST.  The 1.7 update followed, to fix the SD card issue, and that ended the updates to the N1E (though hopefully there'll still be one more to fix the host of issues people are now seeing with the shop and the fictionwise transfers, but I'm not holding my breath).

[Science_man]

Mercury Glitch,

Are you saying we can return our NT to the store and exchange it for an HD?  What is the process, and is there a time limit?   

[flyingtoastr Scribe]

If you bought your device within the return policy exchange period you can trade it up (and pay the difference).

[EB613]

I have a NT, and while I wished they preserved the web pages, try Googling "Wayback Machine". It's an Internet archive. I bet you can find the pages there. I did for Apple's iPod touch because I have the 3rd generation and I wanted a nostalgic feeling of remembering when I looked at the web wishing for it. (It makes me feel better about mine instead of the shiny new ones.)

I'm used to technology phasing out faster than you can talk. It's just a part of consumerism and life in America. My iPhone is obsolete basically, so is my iPod, and my NT. It's a "whatever" factor to me. I may want the new devices, but if I have working ones, why bother looking? Sure they're shiny, but I have working devices. 

I only disagree with myself here because I really want Nook Video Service. I doubt that's going to happen. Sideloading is hard for me on a Mac (I have Handbrake but I hate it, I wish DVD Catalyst had theirs for Mac). Buying videos so I could watch them anywhere? A win. 5ivedom's comments have me hoping. 

[DeanGibson Distinguished Bibliophile]

---

flyingtoastr wrote:... BN stores are just selling down the remainder of their inventory. Cases are still available, though since they are no longer being produced the stock on them will also begin to grow thin. If there is a specific case that you've had your eye on, now would be a good time to buy it.

---

At my local B&N store:

1. Shelf space (and prices) for the cases for the Nook 1st Edition started to dwindle a month or so before the availability of the devices dwindled.
2. Shelf space(and prices) for the cases for the Nook Color and Tablet started to dwindle a month or so before the availability of the devices dwindled.
3. Shelf space (and prices) for some of the cases for the Nook Touch and Glow have started to dwindle.  Example:  B&N used to carry at least five different colors of the Lautner case;  the bn.com website is now down to two Lautner colors, and they are NOT the popular ones.

[5ivedom]

EB613, you should let the DVD Catalyst people know. My understanding is that they could probably keep a lot of the core code and just do the port of the UI and some parts to make it work for Mac.