Barnes & Noble’s footprint in the tablet market is about to grow.
The leading brick-and-mortar bookseller will begin selling an 8 GB version of its Nook Tablet on Wednesday, through Walmart in addition to Barnes & Noble. This is according to a report on Theverge.com.
The site claims to have gotten its hands on an internal document that outlines the new tablet launch. It would be something of a surprise if B&N were to actually begin selling the device so soon, without any sort of pre-launch fanfare.
Then again, it looks as though it will be pretty much exactly the same as the existing Nook Tablet, except with a smaller capacity. The current tablet offers 16 GB of storage space and is priced at $250.
Of course, everyone knows that Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet is just $200, so if you’re going to buy an entry-level Android tablet, you’re gonna go with Amazon’s choice.
The new Nook Tablet would assumedly go for the same price as the Kindle Fire, making for a tougher competition between the two tablets. Of course, the Kindle Fire has so much momentum right now, it will be hard for anyone to catch up.
Right now the answer to Amazon’s tablet has pretty much been that the Kindle Fire is a good base-level, inexpensive way to get into the tablet world, but if you want something with more power, the other manufacturers want you to head to their side.
For Barnes & Noble as well as Amazon, entering the tablet market is a new step. Both retailers previously offered dedicated e-reader devices, but that niche will always remain nothing more than a niche. The tablet industry is where there is much more money to be made.
