Barnes & Noble’s ‘Nook’ e-reader takes on the Amazon Kindle

Barnes & Noble's Nook. Image courtesy of Reuters.

It must be a little lonely at the top for Amazon’s Kindle, but that could soon change. Barnes & Noble has recently announced its very own e-reader just in time for the coming holiday season. The “Nook,” which is the name for the dual-screen e-reader, seems to have quite an edge over the Kindle. Barnes & Noble will make the Nook available in nearly 800 of its U.S. retail stores at the end of November. This is a big advantage over the Kindle since customers can come in and try the device before purchasing – good news for the impatient or those who hate shopping online.

The Nook features an e-Ink screen for displaying the main content and a small color screen just below for viewing titles and the Barnes & Noble catalog. Gizmodo’s Matt Buchanan says of the display, “The LCD is surprisingly nice, though the viewing angle isn’t super wide or anything, as I found out trying to angle around the crowd. But yeah, it looks like what an ereader should look like.” In addition to its sleek aesthetics, the device will run on AT&T’s network for wireless delivery of content and feature Google’s Android mobile platform. But perhaps one of the most enticing features about Barnes & Noble’s platform is its ePub format which will allow viewing on multiple devices, whereas Amazon’s books can be viewed only the Kindle, iPhone and iPod Touch.

Adopting a more open atmosphere, in stark contrast with the Kindle’s closed system, Barnes & Noble will allow books to be shared between users for two weeks per book. The Nook is also competitively priced at $259 — $20 less than the Kindle. Pile on a selection of books twice the size of Amazon’s (700,000 vs. 350,000) and it looks like Barnes & Noble has an e-reader that will do more than just nibble at the Kindle’s heels.

Via Barnes & Noble