Its becoming a world of Tablets. iPad, Xoom, Galaxy, and many others out there. All priced up at entry laptop level. Then there is the Nook Color. The e-reader that could corner the e-book and tablet market.
So what has gone wrong? Barnes and Nobel has gone wrong. When B&N launched the Nook Color, Froyo and a marketplace were supposed to be out in Q1 2011. Froyo has been delayed permanently it seems, and the marketplace isn’t even breathing. Why? Doesn’t B&N realize that they could corner the market and become more popular than the iPad? Don’t they realize that they could boost their eBook sales and profits by opening up the Nook Color to what students and corporations need?
Now, let me be quite honest here. I bought a Nook Color. I went with it for a couple of reasons. One being the quality of the screen when reading PDFs compared to the other e-readers out there. The other because of the upcoming marketplace. One of the things the Nook Color lacks for what I use it for is a word processor (or notepad) type program. Yes I can root the sucker if I want to, but honestly, I don’t feel like it. I want to keep it under warranty. I want what B&N originally promised for the future of the device.
Part of my problem is the lack of communication from B&N on when the marketplace, and Froyo or Gingerbread, will be coming. Nothing official said in a few months. In the mean time, Apple wants a bigger cut of an books sold from B&N online. B&N could really entice more people with the promised upgrades. Its a golden opportunity, and yet B&N seems like they don’t want to be on top.