Obviously, that playing field was leveled with the Kindle Fire announcement a few weeks back. And with the Kindle Fire officially hitting the market in a week, many have been waiting for B&N's next move.
B&N fired back in a big way this morning with several impressive announcements:
- Nook Simple Touch price reduced: Much like what Amazon did with their Kindle price reductions, B&N started their chain of announcements by knocking $50 off of their Simple Touch e-reader. The new $99 price tag puts the Simple Touch in direct competition with the ad-supported Kindle.
- Nook Color price reduced and updated: B&N also dropped the Nook Color by $50, bringing it to a same-as-the-Kindle-Fire $200. Additionally, the Nook Color will be getting an OTA update that will bring Hulu and more music-streaming services to the device.
- New Nook Tablet: The biggest announcement is clearly the unveiling of the new Nook Tablet. While physically the device resembles a slightly thinner and lighter Nook Color, the device boasts a dual-core processor for much snappier performance. More impressive, however, is that it will come bundled with Netflix and Hulu right out of the box. Priced at $250, B&N is anticipating people will pay the extra $50 compared to the Kindle Fire for a device with better specs.
More important than the devices and price reductions themselves is the way B&N announced them. B&N CEO William Lynch pulled no punches when comparing the Nook Tablet and Kindle Fire, taking several direct shots at Amazon's approach to tablets.
That being said, both devices adhere to the same path in giving consumers a media consumption device rather than a tablet aimed at replacing a computer.
At this point it's tough to say who will win the war, but we do know that this holiday shopping season has gotten a lot more interesting.