Why Barnes & Noble Can’t Compete With Amazon

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The inspiration to write this article came after I read the The New York Times article The Bookstore’s Last Stand, which discuss the current position of Barnes & Noble and how they are trying to compete with the giant Amazon.

I really have a love for 7″ tablets and as I was planing my wish list to buy when I travel to the US I thought about looking at Barnes & Noble web site to learn more about their Nook Tablet so I could decide if I should get one. Of course I looked at it just because of the price and the design, for some reason I love virtual buttons on a tablet, which is very different than my actual Galaxy Tab 7″ that is just a bigger Galaxy S.

After I read some reviews I added it to my wish list. I’m going to have no problem on buying it since I’m going to travel and I’ll buy directly from a store, but if I wasn’t it would be impossible to get one from outside the US. The thing is that B&N site has restrictions and one of those is that you can’t buy anything if you’re not a US citizen with a US address and credit card. This means that after I get my hands on the tablet I will not be able to buy books, videos, apps, whatever. This doesn’t botter me since I was going to root and install CyanogenMod 7 on it anyway, but for a normal customer this is very bad.

If I was a normal brazilian going to the US to have a great time and decided to buy a Nook Tablet there because I was randomly walking by the road and saw an ad at the front of the B&N store, I would be screwed as soon as I get back to Brazil or the moment I try to download an app. This is why I think Barnes & Noble will fail to compete with Amazon, because if it was a Kindle Fire I would at least have the ability to download books without any problems.

The Amazon Kindle is starting to get some attention here in Brazil and I see a lot of people getting them. It’s time for Barnes & Noble to rethink their strategy and label as urgent their plans to go worldwide.

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About Nathan Campos

The guy that had the idea to start this site. Mobile developer and Apple lover. I have great ideas, things to write, code or invent. Most of my time I spend programming or writing random articles, usually my opinion about the tech world (mainly mobile). I have good experience with Android, Windows Phone/Mobile, iOS, Mac OS X, Linux and Windows. I could list all the devices I own, but the list would be too big and no one will undertand why someone still owns a HP Jornada and other old school stuff.

My favorite gaming platform is iOS. I was a XBOX fan, but 3 red lights of doom happened. I think that as mobile devices are getting closer to computers, it will become the dominant gaming platform in the future.

My daily gear: Macbook Pro 17" with an i7, iPhone 4 32GB (black), HTC Titan, Galaxy S running MIUI, Galaxy Tab 7" running CyanogenMod 7 and my iPad 3G 64GB.
  • http://fadi.el-eter.com/ Fadi El-Eter

    HI Nathan,

    I haven’t seen anyone who really wants a Nook tablet. In fact, I haven’t heard of the Nook tablet before. So far, the best tablet I have used was Samsung’s (the 10.1″ though).

    • http://twitter.com/nathanpc Nathan Campos

      I don’t think that Android on tablets bigger than 7.7″ is a good thing, sadly there are just a few apps optimized to take advantage of the bigger screen. People that are getting an Android tablet are usually picking the Kindle Fire or the Nook Color/Tablet because they are cheaper.