Amazon’s Kindle eReader has been the leader, at least in the US, of the e-reader market since the introduction of the Kindle 1 in 2007. Sony came in second with 30-35% of the market.
But now there’s a new kid on the block. In October 2009, Barnes & Noble announced its Nook e-reader which sold out on pre-order within a few weeks.
The corner is revolutionary mainly in its appearance. It will be hard for the average boy/girl to see one and not develop a serious craving. But does this mean that the corner is the best since the printing press for bookish boys and girls?
Let’s take a look and compare some of the features of the Nook and Kindle e-readers.
For the most part, reading on the e-ink screen in the corner is very similar to reading on the e-ink screen of the Kindle eReader. Both e-readers use the same or very similar reading screen.
What is dramatically different, and what actually draws many people to the Nook e-reader, is the small LCD touch screen below the e-ink display. On the Kindle, navigation is accomplished using the chicklet keyboard and the 5-way controller. Corner controls are accessed primarily via the LCD touch screen.
The touch screen in the corner is also used to search for books in your library or to select books to purchase from Barnes & Noble via wireless connection. A virtual keyboard is available on the LCD for typing.
The color LCD screen in the corner looks great and seems like a very desirable feature, but there are issues with the software implementation, which we’ll get to in a bit.
connectivity:
The Kindle eReader has a 3G wireless connection through AT&T for the Kindle Global and Sprint for the Kindle 2. Amazon calls its wireless service “Whispernet.” With Whispernet, you can typically purchase and download a book in a minute or less. You can also use the somewhat clunky but functional browser to access the Internet, check email, research your reading on Wikipedia, even access another non-Amazon online e-book store to buy and download books, etc. With Kindle Global, you also have access to the Kindle store in many other countries besides the US, although you must pay a surcharge to download a book on Whispernet outside of the US.
The eReader Nook has a WiFi connection and an AT&T 3G wireless connection. The difference is that the corner connection can only be used to purchase and download books from Barnes & Noble. Without the Internet, without Wikipedia, you cannot use it to connect to another online e-book store and buy books.
The corner WiFi connection will come in handy if you take your corner e-reader to a B&N store, as it will download coupons and special offers to your e-reader. You can also use WiFi to browse eBooks while you’re in a B&N store, but you can only read each book for a maximum of one hour in a 24-hour period. These features in the store are not yet fully implemented, so we don’t yet know how useful they will be.
Exchange
One of the Nook eReader features that has received a lot of press coverage is the ability to lend your eBooks to friends. Unfortunately, this feature is not as good as first thought. For one thing, publishers must choose to let their books be borrowed. Some have said they will not allow this. There are also restrictions: you can only borrow a particular book once, and only for 14 days. While a book is being borrowed, you cannot access it from your own corner.
The Kindle currently does not allow this type of borrowing. However, you can share eBooks with up to 6 (may vary by title) Kindles that are registered to the same account. This works well for families with multiple Kindles. It’s even possible to set up a book club with your Kindle-owning friends if you’re comfortable sharing a single credit card to register your Kindle e-readers.
Other features
One nice feature that the Nook eReader has is a user-replaceable battery. The Kindle’s battery is attached and therefore will need to be sent to Amazon for replacement ($60). Amazon says that even after 500 charges (ten years or so), these batteries will still hold 80% of a charge, so this may not be a problem for most people.
The nook also accepts an SD card for additional storage. The Kindle only has its internal storage, but that’s enough to store around 1500 books, so this might not be a problem for you either.
One corner feature that hasn’t received any official recognition from Barnes & Noble is the ability to borrow eBooks from your local library if you use Overdrive’s digital distribution service. To do this, you need to install Adobe Digital Editions on your computer and use it to upload the eBook to your corner. You can borrow an eBook from the library for 14 days, after which it will be automatically deleted. You cannot renew library e-book loans. To find out how useful this feature will be for you, you should check your local library’s website. Most libraries do not yet have a large catalog of eBooks. Kindle does not support library eBook borrowing at this time
e-book stores
No matter how cool the hardware is, the main purpose of an eReader is to read books. Since today’s e-readers tend to be tied to proprietary DRM formats for today’s titles, you should make sure that the hardware you choose is supported by the best e-book stores.
The main eBook provider in the DRM eBook corner will, of course, be Barnes & Noble. You can also buy DRM-enabled eBooks from other online sellers that support Adobe Digital Editions. The corner also supports DRM-free EPUB and PDF formats.
With Kindle, you’ll buy most, if not all, DRM titles from Amazon’s Kindle store. Kindle also uses a few other formats for DRM-free eBooks, such as MOBI and PDF. Public domain eBooks are also available for Kindle e-readers. I suspect that at some point Amazon will have to allow EPUB support for the Kindle as well, as there is increasing pressure for this.
Many people look down on the fact that the Kindle is locked into Amazon’s eBook store for DRM-enabled eBooks. While this may be largely true, the fact remains that the Kindle Store has more titles available than B&N and all online stores that sell ADE format eBooks combined. In most cases, Amazon’s prices are lower as well, although Barnes & Noble has been trying to match their prices.
If you primarily read books on current bestseller lists, chances are you can find them available in most formats at similar prices. However, the more offbeat your reading, the more likely you are to find what you’re looking for in the Kindle Store.
So which eReader is better: Kindle or Nook?
If the Nook e-reader hadn’t been rushed to market to make the holiday season of 2009, and if Barnes & Noble had waited until they had the software ready and the bugs worked out, then I’d say the Nook would have been a very close second. . choice and maybe even equal to the Kindle.
In fact, Nook is currently crippled by its buggy release version software and unless B&N fixes it in time, Nook will be overtaken by the next version of Kindle. Barnes & Noble has said that they are working around the clock to update the software and fix current issues with the corners; and to their credit they have posted a couple of updates as of this writing. However, there are still plenty of bugs and the Nook is slower than the Kindle, which will distract you when you’re trying to dive into the next great book. As it stands, the LCD doesn’t work well with the e-ink display and can be very frustrating to use.
Also, I prefer the Kindle store. However, my reading tastes may be different from yours, so I suggest you make a list of the books you want to read and do a price and availability comparison between the Kindle store and the B&N offerings. The higher prices for eBooks can add up pretty quickly.
The Kindle’s ability to connect to the Internet and Wikipedia, etc. neither should it be underestimated.
I think the Nook eReader has the potential to be a great eReader and possibly match the Kindle, but it’s a gamble to buy one now and wait to see if Barnes & Noble can fix all the problems in time and also match the Kindle store deals. .
