This morning, Barnes & Noble (@BNBuzz) held a news conference to unveil next-generation Nook products (@nookBN). CNET (@CNET) was there live blogging the event.
CNET says the successor to 2010’s Nook Color (which remains on the market for $199) is the $249 Nook Tablet. “The new 7-inch color tablet equals many of the basic specs of the Kindle Fire (@AmazonKindle), but justifies its $50 price premium over Amazon's (@amazon) model by offering several notable upgrades."
The Nook Tablet will offer twice the storage and twice the RAM of the Fire; it’s got an SD expansion slot for even more storage capacity (which the Fire lacks); and B&N is already touting the eventual availability of Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Pandora apps (Amazon's list of third-party Fire apps remains undisclosed). Those features are in addition to the existing assortment of apps and features already available on the Nook Color (and on deck for the Kindle Fire) – email and a Flash-enabled Web browser, in addition to a fully stocked ebook store, and magazine and newspaper newsstand.
Also see CNET’s “Kindle Fire vs. Nook Tablet”, Publishers Weekly’s (@PublishersWkly) “B&N Debuts $249 Nook Tablet, Upgrades NookColor, Now $199”, dbw's (@DigiBookWorld) "Why the Nook's Books Could Trump the Kindle's Sizzle," and our previous blogpost “Amazon Unveils 3 New Kindles.”
In other news that pertains somewhat to the above, a new study by CCS Insight (@CCSInsight) says European tablet owners are using their tablets more at home than they are on the move or in the office.