I've been asked to help someone figure out which of these
two worthy products one should purchase for their dearly beloved :
The Nook Tablet
The Kindle Fire
This may be one of the hottest topics around for the gainfully
employed and techToy giving public at this time of 2011.
And it's not the simplest of decisions I've been asked about.
Even this week.
In brief, the deal is this :
Both products are sold at a loss.
Both products are for early adopters
looking for something of a bargain ;
they both have a ways to go before they're
all grown up.
For this market segment / price point both
offer facilities that are currently associated
with much higher priced products. Both
thus have an additional indirect cool factor.
For those users that want to cruise the web, handle
email /messaging with a keyboard that is compatible
with thumbs AND fingers, look at Netflix/Hulu/YouTube,
play a few games, read some books and so forth, both of these
products do an exceptionally good job for the money/ form factor.
Bear in mind that you can get a good WIN7 netbook with 4GB of RAM
and 500GB of disk with an 11" screen for the same price at Costco.
Having played with both I'd have to say that the Nook Tablet
seems a better piece of hardware and my eyes tell me that
I'm buying a piece of hardware. The Nook looks a bit better,
performs smoothly, has space for an SD card, a speaker and more.
The KindleFire was good but had a bit less punch ...but not so
much less that it's a no brainer spending the additional $50
on the Nook. And all that is before you consider the Cloud facilities
Amazon is offering.
Enjoy your new Kindle Fire.
Now
products ? Is this really just a hardware purchase or is there
more going on here.
There's a whole heck of a lot more going on here.
This is actually a really juicy conjuncture.
Consider :
Were does your content come from tomorrow ?
Not all Android content is available to you.
Somehow I am not worried about getting content from
Amazon, but I may not be happy with the price and so on.
There is also that cloud thing that they've invested so
heavily in and are willing to let you have some of.
(Me no need to understand, sounds cool, so me like it.)
The Nook is comparatively off by itself in the OS department.
While you can add things to the SD card and stream
to your hearts content, getting access to NewAndImproved
content the day after tomorrow is not quite so obviously
guaranteed. Ports of hot new games and so forth may
not be so quick in coming. Particularly if B&N goes bust.
And there is no hint of that cloud stuff the Amazons are so good at.
Why are these people selling hot products at a loss ?
Glad you asked. They are both trying to make money by spending
money. They are to be saluted for this ! It is a rare thing in these
mindlessly austere times.
Barnes & Noble is a basically the last big bookseller
left standing. They are not a technology company, so what's
up with this tablet offering ?
What in god's name are they doing ?
Trying to save their business that's what.
Brick and mortar operations like B&N are going losing $$ faster
than my 401K. People do not really seem to be willing to pay
good $$ for that touchyFeely in store browsing experience
any more. Remember Borders ? I reckon most of us wander through
the store for fun and information, discovering what's available, what we
really want and then buying it for less on the web.
Else we only shop at Amazon or similar operators of fine web n' warehouse establishments.
So the web's the thing, like it or not. If B&N does not do something big
quick Amazon will have them wiped out. In fact, this game may well be
over already. In fairness to B&N, they've made a very creditable entry
into a new business space and this is not to be underestimated.
For Amazon I think the game is quite different. They are a technology
company and a very good one at that. Personally, I'd rate them up there
with Google & Apple. B&N is probably not even a great big concern for
Amazon. They probably outsell B&N in the book market already.
What I think Amazon wants is to put the end of their supply
chain in you hands. They will push everything from books to
baseballs at you through that FieryKindle marketing portal
you bought from them. I'm guessing that they'll offer you a variety
of merchandise and pricing that is all but impossible to imagine.
We will soon buy more things :
we never heard of before
were not looking for
do not need
can not afford
We will most likely enjoy every minute of it too, because it will
be so brilliantly well done.
Ok, so guess which product I recommended to my friend.
The Nook!??
Yep.
What does my customer want to do with the machine they are buying ?
They just want to cruise the web, do some email & messaging, read
books and play the odd game. They are essentially a book reader that is accumulating too many hardcopy books to store easily. They already have an IPhone and a good desktop. It would be nice to have a bigger screen to watch
some video on in bed. That is what is of value to them.
The Nook still looks like a better piece of hardware and that is
what you're buying today. Tomorrow never knows and in any case
you'll probably be buying the next generation tablet (with features you
never dreamed of, were not looking for ...) in two to three years anyway.
(How long did your last IPod survive ?).
Carpe diem and perhaps a bookseller will survive too.
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