Barnes & Noble Announces A New $50 Android Tablet (teleread.org)

Next Friday Barnes & Noble will release a $50 Android tablet, competing against Amazon's tablets with a more-open version of Android. Long-time Slashdot reader Robotech_Master writes: The specs are similar to slightly better than the $50 Fire, but the kicker is this tablet will ship with plain-vanilla Marshmallow Android 6.0 and the Google Play utilities -- unlike the Fire, which limits its users to only those apps Amazon deems suitable to offer. Might this be enough to rescue the ailing Nook brand?
If you truly care about your app ecosystem, this would at least save you the trouble of having to root your tablet just to install apps from the Google Play Store.

Comments

And to think they could have had it all

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't believe at one point B&N was considered a huge threat to Microsoft and Amazon, until things went completely sideways

Re:And to think they could have had it all

[dgatwood]

The problem was that their heart was never in it. Competing with a big company means taking big risks, and continuing to take big risks even when the numbers don't go up as quickly as you'd like them to. It means creating products that are innovative, and doing it on a regular cycle. And it means creating the perception that you stand behind your products and will continue to do so over the long term. B&N has completely failed at all of those things, and that's why we're all so shocked that they're even bothering to release a new model rather than dropping out of the e-Book business entirely.

At this point, B&N has been out of the hardware business for several years, with the possible exception of their E-ink model. Everything else is built by other companies. But even when they were still designing hardware, they kept shipping new hardware that didn't even run the latest version of Android on the day it shipped. Heck, their latest E-ink hardware was behind by two major versions on the day that it shipped. And AFAIK, they never update them to run current versions of the OS, so anybody who wants to stay reasonably current depends on third parties to hack together support. As a tablet, their products start out as crap and get further behind as they age.

If B&N really want to compete, they need to get serious, and make a pledge to always ship the current version of Android on all of their hardware. They need to provide OS updates for existing customers so that the products don't get farther and farther behind. Basically, they need to take the OS side of things seriously.

They also need to keep their RMSDK versions up-to-date so that book publishers won't keep having to cater to the most ancient devices with the oldest, most broken version of Adobe Digital Editions wrapped in a Nook UI.

They also need to make options available with faster hardware. I mean sure, there's something to be said about making a low-end device that they can build cheaply, but they ought to also have a step-up device that's a serious Android tablet with all the Nook-ization. Otherwise, people who want a tablet that's actually usable as a tablet will install Nook's Android app on a device from someone else, which means B&N loses not just market share, but also the psychological advantage of folks thinking of their devices as Nook tablets. As a result, they're more likely to also install the Kindle app, and they have less incentive to buy books from B&N.

Re:And to think they could have had it all

[unrtst]

That all made perfect sense, as long as you ignore how the other big companies operate. I'm serious... that's the plan I'd say they should follow too, but that's not what the successful companies are doing.

... and that's why we're all so shocked that they're even bothering to release a new model rather than dropping out of the e-Book business entirely.

Who all is in the e-book business these days?
* amazon, obviously. They're probably #1
* apple ibooks. They have no e-ink reader, but their ibook users won't buy another device for reading cause they love their ithing so much. I consider this a niche market, because no other hardware/platform is really going to win those users.
* B&N. I'm 99% sure they are either #2 or #3, and I haven't looked at any stats.
* Kobo? Or free apps and 3rd party or pirated books? Or the other e-ink readers that are hard to even find?
Why would B&N exit a market where they're in the top 3? That's still a HUGE volume. Any of the others would LOVE to have that extra share. It's enough for them to manage a profit from it, and any bit that Amazon doesn't get makes them more competitive, so it's win-win to keep it.

B&N has been out of the hardware business for several years, with the possible exception of their E-ink model.

Good. IMO, they never should have made their own tablet. The e-ink reader is the book market, and they can make a nice app for any and all tablets (which they already have). The e-ink competition is amazon, and a bunch of also rans.

Heck, their latest E-ink hardware was behind by two major versions on the day that it shipped.

Amazon doesn't even run Android on their E-ink hardware.
On the Fire tablets, Amazon doesn't support the normal app ecosystem (no google play, no gmail, no chrome, no firefox, no hangouts, no chromecast support, etc). AFAICT, you can't even make a bookmark onto the home screen, so you can't make a shortcut to the web versions of things. I'm VERY upset about that, cause I tried to make that a drop in replacement for some elder family members (the live support and cheap price with decent specs sold me on them... these shortcomings were downplayed by everyone I talked to, but now the tablets are unused junk).

GP mentioned B&N being a threat to both Microsoft and Amazon. If you look at microsofts competition in this market, it's essentially non-existant. I don't think they ever even had an e-ink reader, and if they had a book store, it was so insignificant that no one knows about it. Their updates and maintenance on their product lines has been pretty awful, with the exception of windows itself, where they went with the other extreme.

My point is, using the others as a model, B&N doesn't need to be a good company and provide lots of great support. It's sad.

Re:And to think they could have had it all

[Godwin O'Hitler]

If B&N really want to compete, they need to get serious, and make a pledge to always ship the current version of Android on all of their hardware.

If they want to compete they need to find a market that is OK with 1024px screen resolution. Although to be fair, people who buy Amazon Fires probably don't know what that means.

Re:And to think they could have had it all

[amiga3D]

It's a 50 dollar throw away tablet. I mean for 50 bucks you get a tablet that you actually can control what apps are on it. No more putting up with someone else idea of what software should be there. You get a slot for a 128gb micro sd card which now sell for less than 40 dollars. If you just want something to play with it's perfect. Ooops! I broke it! Oh well, no worries. What's not to like. I started to buy a Fire but when I saw Amazon crippled it I decided I didn't need something totally fucking useless. If your hardware is crippled with crapware you should be giving that shit away.

Re: And to think they could have had it all

[Anonymous Coward]

By volume, the winner in my household is Bittorrent, since it's trivial to find those torrents that contain 10,000 to 50,000 ebooks in one big package.

Re:And to think they could have had it all

[dgatwood]

My point is, using the others as a model, B&N doesn't need to be a good company and provide lots of great support. It's sad.

That's why I think they could so easily dominate the e-Book reader market if they did, and actually could cut into the tablet market significantly.

If you look at Microsoft's competition in this market, it's essentially non-existent.

I assume that person meant the tablet market, not the e-Book reader market.

Why would B&N exit a market where they're in the top 3?

Because despite being #3, their actual products are adding no real value to the market. Their software products are just poorly hacked-up copies of woefully out-of-date versions of Adobe Digital Editions, and on some platforms (OS X, for example), their software is so bad that it wouldn't even launch on many machines (last I checked). B&N could continue to sell electronic books for ADE without making their own software at all by just providing a simple, web-based storefront. IMO, they need to either get into the e-Book reader software market fully by making something that works well (defined as better than ADE) or they need to get out of it and just be a bookseller. They're trying to go halfway, and that's almost invariably a recipe for failure.

Amazon doesn't even run Android on their E-ink hardware.

Yeah, and that makes them pretty much useless for anything but reading books from Amazon. Unfortunately, there aren't enough users for the E-Ink market to really be a sustainable market in the long term. I'm surprised B&N sells enough units to break even on their R&D costs. In the long run, they really should just get together with Amazon, Kobo, and Apple to form a jointly held company that builds basic Android-based E-Ink readers that can read Kindle books, Nook books, Kobo books, and iBooks books, running a current version of Android, and with access to the Play store. It just isn't a big enough market for competition to make sense, and an Amazon monopoly would be bad for everybody—Amazon included, at least from a federal regulation perspective.

On the Fire tablets, Amazon doesn't support the normal app ecosystem (no google play, no gmail, no chrome, no firefox, no hangouts, no chromecast support, etc). AFAICT, you can't even make a bookmark onto the home screen, so you can't make a shortcut to the web versions of things. I'm VERY upset about that, cause I tried to make that a drop in replacement for some elder family members (the live support and cheap price with decent specs sold me on them... these shortcomings were downplayed by everyone I talked to, but now the tablets are unused junk).

I remember a time when folks were worried that those low-cost tablets from Amazon could seriously cut into the market for the iPad. But when it became obvious that you'd have to hack it just to run arbitrary apps, everyone relaxed. Amazon had a chance to make a real impact, but instead, they were so scared that users might install apps and read books from their competition that they completely blew the opportunity. Oops.

Re:And to think they could have had it all

[Anonymous Coward]

OP here, thanks for the response, great read

Re:And to think they could have had it all

[Anonymous Coward]

If your hardware is crippled with crapware you should be giving that shit away.

I bought a nook first. Then I bought a nexus 7 and used it for a long time until it basically died. I bought in that time a cheap 8" nextbook windows tablet, that i never much used as well as an ultra cheap android chinese tablet and an amazon fire neither of which i used much, though the fire might get used next. I did eventually get firefox on it.

I'm currently using and have been for awhile the old nook. It is mostly used for reading text sites, and the one thing I _REALLY_ like about it is the plus/minus font size thing with automatic text reflow.

Seriously, why did android take away that feature?

I might get a another nook, since it is at least vanilla, though it could possibly use a few more dots per inch. I don't care that much about installing most things, but firefox and chrome should be easily installable on any tablet directly from the native ap store, along with extensions such as ublock and stylish in firefox's case.

Re: And to think they could have had it all

[Anonymous Coward]

You control the apps on it? Then why not throw a compiler on it too? None of the Java nonsense that Google forces you to use. Give it an Android console with stdin, stdout, and an NASM-like ARM assembler. Or am I getting to far away from the original intent of the device?

NEEDS NEW NAME!

[Anonymous Coward]

Nookie!

Sell like hotcakes!

Re:NEEDS NEW NAME!

[Anonymous Coward]

They did it for the Nook(ie)..

Can I hack it to put a Linux distro, not android?

[anwyn]

Can I hack it to put a Linux distro, not android on it?

Almost all apps have gone to hell!

[Anonymous Coward]

Almost all android apps now want permissions to access things on your tablet that they have no business or need to access! What this amounts to is that almost all apps want to spy on you, and send your personal info to people who should definitely NOT have it!! In addition, almost all game apps now have ads in the paid versions, and to complete the game you need to make significant in-app purchases. This is just wrong!! After all, you have already paid for the game!!! On top of all of this, the tablet makers all expect you to buy a new tablet every year, so after the tablet is a year old, there are no security updates, even though the tablet still works just fine. All of the above applies to so called "smart" phones too! All of this kind of spying, money grubbing, and planned obsolescence makes it not worthwhile to even own a tablet any more!

Sorry, Charlie.

[Anonymous Coward]

Too late. Much too late. Nook is toast.

No bluetooth and probably 1GB RAM

[drinkypoo]

Neither TFA nor the product page says how much RAM is in the device, so it's probably 1GB and thus useless.

Bluetooth is also not listed as a feature on the product page, for want of a $1 chip a sale was lost. I want to use it in my car to do GPS and I need bluetooth to connect GPS to the tablet.

Re:No bluetooth and probably 1GB RAM

[Howitzer86]

The original Nook Color unofficially had bluetooth. Wifi is provided by the same chip and rooting it enabled this feature (though the range was truly pitiful). You may be able to do the same with the new tablet, but considering your needs, you're better off not buying a tablet from a bookstore company in the first place.

Re:No bluetooth and probably 1GB RAM

[drinkypoo]

You may be able to do the same with the new tablet, but considering your needs, you're better off not buying a tablet from a bookstore company in the first place.

Well, I like cheap. I want something that I can lose or destroy without being sad about it. I don't plan to actually build it into the car or anything, just find a graceful way to temp mount it on the dash.

Come to think of it, I want OBD-II via bluetooth also. OBDLink LX supports KKL.

Re:No bluetooth and probably 1GB RAM

[lytlebill]

Well, according to the FCC filing, at least, it does have Bluetooth:

https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas...

Probably right about that single gig of Ram, though, but I expect that this baby might be just as accurately named the 'Barnes&Noble Cut As Many Costs As We Possibly Could Because Jesus Tap-Dancing Christ We're Really Desperate For Money'.

Slashvertisements

[Anonymous Coward]

What's up with all the Slashvertisements coming back? There's nothing to see here. Another company produces cheap tablets.... news at 11.

Open is great

[Anonymous Coward]

So how about getting rid of DRM on their e-books?

Ok, so books are their core business and tablets aren't, so I guess I don't get the point of this.

(Love my Nook e-Reader but it's all Project Gutenberg stuff on there.)

Who the hell is Barnes & Noble?

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously, aren't they dead? All the stored closed. What's left? They're dysfunctional website?

why?

[Anonymous Coward]

While i did appreciate their other tablet/reader devices as they were really inexpensive for what they gave you ( they took a loss of course ) but due to the realities of that sort of business they switched to re-branded Samsung..

Why go back ?

Far too many tablets on the market for this to make any sense at all. How about instead get some price competition in the 9.7" e-ink market? And bring color ink to the masses..

To little to late

[wjcofkc]

Amazon tying their well developed services to their tablet makes it a well developed media content device. For example I can search for music and make playlists all I want with my Prime Membership. It's playing in my shop all day. Being far from stock Android is a feature and I like Alexa. Granted, I can see why it would be useless without Prime. We'll see if BN can pull something off. Stock Android is a tight market.

Re:Almost all apps have gone to hell!

[Anonymous Coward]

Just don't give those apps those permissions? Works from Android 6 on, or with custom ROMs even earlier.

Re:Can I hack it to put a Linux distro, not androi

[Anonymous Coward]

Nobody cares.

Suckers!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Kobo + Calibre + DeDRM plugin. I've never bought an e-book in my life.

well...

[Anonymous Coward]

I was looking for a new cheap pdf reader, fits the bill, but man the site omits a lot of details, oh, like ...processor!

Re:Can I hack it to put a Linux distro, not androi

[amiga3D]

Yes. It's plain old vanilla Android on it.

Genuine question

[ukoda]

I had one of their early colour tablets and it made a good Android tablet once hacked. Their early e-ink devices had potential.

I seem to recall they lost the plot and were switching to a Microsoft solution? I know they did something that made me lose interest and ignore their new offerings, but I forget the details. Maybe someone here remembers?

Sounds like they are getting back on the right track.

Generic $50 tablet w/ Android 6 already

[tbuskey]

BestBuy sells a Digiland tablet for $50. 7" screen, 1GB RAM, 8GB storage, quad core, SD slot, Vanilla Android 6, bluetooth, camera.

I have a Fire HD 7" 4th gen. I like the Digiland better. The *only* advantage the Fire has is to run Prime Video. The screen might be slightly higher resolution. It doesn't have Google Play so there are many apps I can't get on it.

I had an earlier tablet (ASUS transformer) with only 1GB. The only way B&N could entice me is more RAM. My phone has 2GB and seems to make a big difference to Android.

Re:Almost all apps have gone to hell!

[B.Stolk]

I'm extremely proud of setting the right example with this:
https://twitter.com/BramStolk/status/421750337750327296

In 2011, this was already a rare feat: two of the top100 apps pulled this off, including mine.

Actually, my Fire tablet runs CM 12.1...

[The Mysterious Dr. X]

Wasn't really all that hard...

http://forum.xda-developers.co...

Re: Can I hack it to put a Linux distro, not andro

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess some get lost on the way to Reddit.

Worse than the Fire, no thanks

[RubberDogBone]

This tablet is not better than the Fire, it is worse, for two main reasons:

One, cost. The Amazon Fire cheap tablet can be found on sale for $35, making it slightly cheaper. There is no word on whether you can get a cover for it with the words "Don't Panic" printed on it. But you probably can.

Two, Android version. While the Fire is restricted to Amazon's ecosystem, it is quite easy to override all of that with something like CM which makes it into a regular old Android tablet. And it actually runs a LOT better with CM than the Amazon OS, which makes it a fantastic value for $35.

Maybe the B&N version is OK if you can't find the Fire on sale. But whatever. I can find people making ROMs and otherwise supporting the Amazon tablet because a fair number of people own them and have hacked at them. B&N will be lucky to sell a handful of their tablet and it won't garner much enthusiast support unless the hardware is some kind of magical thing, which seems unlikely.

never had to root my fire hd...

[Anonymous Coward]

Just had to install Google play services

Re:Almost all apps have gone to hell!

[stoborrobots]

Or get your apps from places like F-Droid, and you don't need a Google account or useless spyware apps.