Nook from B&N Pushes E-reader Market Forward

On October 20, Barnes & Noble (B&N) executives unveiled a new e-reader device—called the Nook—at a packed press conference on the west side of Manhattan. The Nook is an unusual dual screen digital reader—it has a six-inch grayscale E-Ink display with a full-color backlit touch-control screen situated just below—that raises the ante on E-Ink devices. The Nook offers a virtual keyboard, two gigabytes of internal memory with an expandable (16 gig) SD card and five different fonts.

The device will go on sale exclusively in B&N stores and through B&N.com at the end of November; the nook.com site has already gone live. Priced, unsurprisingly, at $259, the same as the Amazon Kindle 2, the Nook not only offers wireless connectivity over a 3G network (AT&T) but also Wi-Fi connectivity as well. In addition, Nook owners can wirelessly lend/transmit titles for up to 14 days to anyone else with a Nook, iPhone, or other selected smartphone that has the B&N eReader software installed.

However, the LendMe feature, as it is called, is quite limited. According to a critique on the site Medioloper, “unlike the library, there are no extensions. When a book is lent, the lender loses access, and once the book is returned to the lender it can never be lent again.” And even these features depend on publishers opting in. As of yet, there is no way to lend library materials wirelessly to any e-reader device, though the desktop-based transfer of materials via USB should work for library ebooks when the Nook is released.

Still, while the color touch-screen controls seem more about being cool than being necessary, the LendMe function, the synching with other mobile devices, and the Nook's attractive price may fuel a holiday season that puts this device in the hands of many patrons.