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Sunday, December 13, 2009

What is Nook

This past summer, I pre-ordered Amazon Kindle DX. When it arrived, I used Kindle DX a week and returned the product. The main reason I returned Kindle is it could not render many ebooks correctly, which I plan to read. Those ebooks can be rendered correctly using Acrobat reader on PC. Besides that, I am disappointed about the flaky browser and poor Sprint wireless signal. I have other wishes such as touch screen and color screen. Moreover, ebook reader price should be reduced. I know Sony ereader software is bad. So I plan to wait another year when other ereaders come out. For example, It is reported that PlasticLogic will release ereader in 2010.

But on October 20, 2009, Barnes & Noble announced that it is releasing Nook, Barnes & Noble ebook reader. Reviews of nook are mostly positive. I visited Barnes & Noble bookstore on Thanksgiving weekend. There are a shelf and a guy to show off the nook. But I did not see the real nook, instead just some booklets. Later I heard it would not catch this Christmas shopping season.

Overall, I am very happy to see Barnes & Noble to introduce nook. It will make a more competitive ereader market, which will boost the innovation and quality, and reduce the ebook price. The consumer will benefit from the competition. Amazon would also think more before it erased Orwell ebook from Kindle. Also the AT&T wireless network used by Nook have a better signal quality than Sprint, and nook has WiFi functionality while Kindle DX does not.

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