Barnes and Noble is supposed to officially announce the next versions of its Nook eReader on Monday but some internal documents from the book seller found their way onto the Internet, specifically Engadget. The info reveals plans for the next version of the Nook Color, to be called the Nook Tablet. The tablet will go on sale on November 16 for $249 with pre-orders being accepted on Monday.
So how does the Nook Tablet compare to Amazon"s Kindle Fire, which sells for $50 less and is due to be released one day earlier on November 15? Pretty well, at least on paper. The Nook Tablet has 16 GB of internal storage, compared to the Kindle Fire"s 8 GB. Once more, the Nook Tablet has an SD card slot for even more optional storage space; the Kindle Fire lacks such a slot. The Nook Color has 1 GB of memory compared to just 512 MB for the Kindle Fire.
Those two facts alone might be enough to justify the $50 price difference but wait; there"s more. The seven inch Nook Tablet also has a dual-core 1.2 Ghz processor inside, along with support for streaming video and audio services like Netfix, Hulu Plus and Pandora and more. It"s even lighter than the Kindle Fire.
So with the nation"s two biggest book sellers, the race will soon be on to find out which eReader-Android tablet will be accepted by consumers. Did Amazon"s early announcement generate enough high sales numbers to keep rivals at bay? Or will the Nook Tablet show that there"s a way to topple Amazon and beat them at their own game? Stay tuned.