
Barnes & Noble treats Nook Color to Froyo; unveils Nook Apps - rkudeshi
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/gadgetreviews/barnes-noble-treats-nook-color-to-froyo-unveils-nook-apps/23904
======
npalli
Early reports suggest almost 3 million NC's sold in four months[1]. That would
mean a run rate of at least 6 million per year. That is astonishing for a
brick and mortar retailer with no consumer electronics background. The very
attractive price point (could drop under $200) and decent ergonimics
(lightweight 7") would mean NC could end up taking a major chunk of the light
browsing/reading/email/ebook-reader market.

1\. Amazon now _has_ to bring out a tablet running Android. It is only a
matter of time before the NC drops to under $200 and then people start buying
the NC instead of Kindle. While rooting the NC is easy, if you check the
downloads of the images, I would say less than 15% end up actively rooting. So
that means no Kindle app on NC.

2\. Apple now has to figure out alternate uses for the iPad since they are
going to get disrupted on the browsing/email/ebook-reader category. I don't
even know if they can bring out a 7" iPad (current investments in 10" and
maybe even hardware optimized for 10"). Looks like they are trying to
repurpose the iPad into a gaming device. In any case, they can't be happy with
the rapid rise of NC. Strangely B&N is the only company which has a lower
supply chain cost than Apple in the tablet market -- they own retail, they
don't have to do any OS development, they don't have to put out the latest
hardware.

1\. <http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20048052-1.html>

~~~
brianbreslin
Curious as to how you see B&N having lower supply chain cost than Apple? Apple
is making 15M+ ipads, their unit costs on chips etc are going to be lower, B&N
still has to source and develop the hardware for NC

~~~
npalli
Few things. kenjackson alluded to them

1\. NC is using older generation parts (ex. their SoC is OMAP3621 which is at
least two generations behind). This is off the shelf from Texas instruments
who own the entire supply chain in design and foundry. Look at all the
products using this technology --
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_OMAP#OMAP3> \-- now you are
looking at pretty decent volume and per unit cost.

2\. 6 million vs 15.4 is not very meaningful in per unit cost difference since
both volumes are pretty huge. This is not accounting for the fact that other
companies could be using this SoC. Also, Apple does custom design for thier
own products so Samsung cannot sell off their chips to someone else. So Apple
has to invest in design and all the associated costs in the development and
obsolescense of the chips. Given the tight margins it is not surprising Apple
buys gross manufacturing capacity below forecasts and let shortages occur.

------
narrator
Congratulation to Barnes & Nobles. They are one of the few brick and mortar
retailers that was able to embrace the Internet age instead of fighting or
ignoring it. Their agility would make a great business school case study.

~~~
woodall
Are we talking about the same store?[0]

[0][http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=BKS&t=1y&l=on&z=...](http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=BKS&t=1y&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=)

~~~
narrator
They finally started making money again last quarter:
<http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=BKS>

They also managed to survive while Border's went broke:
[http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=BKS&t=6m&l=on&z=...](http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=BKS&t=6m&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=BGP)

The stock is so beaten down because when Borders started to fall over it
looked like book stores were all going to die one by one just like the brick
and mortar music stores did.

------
rst
Developer program docs, such as they are, here:
<https://nookdeveloper.barnesandnoble.com/>

That gets you access to the SDK. Access to the store is a messier deal. I've
found brief summary docs, and a pointer to the application, in two places:

[http://nookdeveloper.zendesk.com/entries/20009311-qualify-
as...](http://nookdeveloper.zendesk.com/entries/20009311-qualify-as-a-nook-
app-developer) <https://nookdeveloper.barnesandnoble.com/nook-app-dev.html>

Requirements for being a developer include at least a U.S. bank account and
Tax ID#; the questionnaire also wants you to say why you're serious, and what
other platforms you've already shipped on. (Having an app and wanting to sell
it doesn't prove that you're serious enough?)

Royalty terms are given in the press release at 70% of the sale price, but I'm
still looking for the page that explains whether that's after discounts (and
if so, by how much), and explains the other terms and conditions.

------
jeffreyg
You still need a rooted version to access the Android app store (and probably
always will since they won't want people buying this to install other eReader
apps). It's a shame they need a whole new app store mainly to prevent access
to a handful of apps.

~~~
trotsky
The nook lacks hardware features (a camera, at least) that google requires for
a device to qualify for google branding and google apps including android
market.

~~~
windsurfer
I thought tablets had exceptions to those rules?

~~~
trotsky
The rules are based on the OS version. There are some differences for 3.0, but
in this case 2.1/2.2 doesn't officially support tablets at all so there
weren't any exceptions. Froyo did require a camera, and the four android
buttons - I don't think the nook has those either.

------
yummyfajitas
Just curious, anyone have experience using a rooted nook as a primary tablet?

~~~
muhfuhkuh
I do, and while you have to assume every statement I make has a silent "for
the price" catted to the end, I am really at awe with it and now use it much
more than my iPad 1.

The smaller form factor really shines for reading ebooks, email, and cool feed
readers like pulse. It's super responsive for all 2D tasks (reading, movies,
games like Angry Birds) and you can hold it in one hand for extended periods
unlike the iPad, which gets a little fatiguing after a half-hour or so.

The eMail and gmail apps are great, Dolphin Browser HD and Firefox are good
alternatives to the standard browser in Gingerbread, and it Tweets well
enough. Youtube app plays well. Flash mobile is... well, it's flash on a
mobile device (warts and all). Load all fantastic flash ads on demand!

The processor is sporty (not fast), that is unless/until you root it and
overclock it. I've got CPU governor set to "performance" and have it set at
600 MHz minimum and 1.1 GHz max. That said, Angry Birds ad-free plays silky
smooth; with ads, it's a slog, but that's with almost any android device I've
seen aside from my dual-core, nVidia-powered Atrix 4G phone. The overclocking
produces no more heat or detrimental effects that I can perceive, so I believe
they underpower the CPU by default.

The Omap SoC has a decent graphics card that can play, for example,
Backbreaker Football in 3D without any jitter and few (if any) dropped frames
at all. It runs quadrant (synthetic benchmark) at an overall score of 2100+
and a 26.4 fps on neocore.

It's a daily driver for me. The screen is great, it's super portable yet more
substantial than a smartphone (especially for reading/surfing), and I've been
actually reading more now than ever (split between nook's app and the kindle
app).

~~~
crocowhile
How's battery life to be used the way you use it?

~~~
muhfuhkuh
I can get through an entire weekend day of playing games, getting myself lost
in wikipedia, and reading/surfing/youtubing before it gets to about 30% left.
I'd say it lasts maybe 6-7 hours between recharges with heavy use. If you turn
off wifi and crank down the brightness of the screen, you can pull off more,
but I rock wifi always-on when I'm at home.

Standby drains about 10-12% battery in a 24 hour period I reckon.

------
cydonian_monk
I'm not sure I like the whole "updates will be pushed to WiFi conncted Nooks"
thing. However, given the way the NookColor recovers from failed boots (by
restoring the system from a couple of ROM-"protected" zip files), there is at
least a mechanism in place to do a remote full-system update in a sane way.

Even with Froyo, I'm still looking to turn mine into a non-Android tablet. (Or
perhaps a hybrid...?) Especially since it's so easy to run a system from the
μSD card. $250 toy indeed. Yet so well-built for the price.

------
ck2
Nook has had froyo for some time, just not officially

<http://www.cyanogenmod.com/devices/nook-color>

------
hugh3
So let me get this straight -- I assume the Nook Color has a backlit LCD
display instead of e-paper?

Does this mean that manufacturers are giving up on e-paper already (after
years of telling us it was _so_ much easier to read than a backlit screen)? I
must say that I've spent a lot of time staring at my old-school Nook by now
and I'm not really convinced that it's any easier to read than an iPad screen.

~~~
derekp7
It depends on what the lighting conditions are. I couldn't read my Nook e-ink
display with a 60-watt light bulb (text wasn't dark enough / background too
silver). Apparently the newer e-ink display on the latest Kindle is better.
But on the flip side I have a hard time with the Nook Color outside in the
sunlight -- for that the e-ink works better. Also, the e-ink is good for a few
weeks, instead of 8 hours.

~~~
enjo
I wonder how those hybrid screens (like the Pixel QI screen) work? Until
someone cracks the nut of building a color screen with the same fidelity as
e-ink, that hybrid approach seems like a really good idea.

------
bane
This is great news. It's now the cheapest tablet on the market (that doesn't
have atrocious build quality).

~~~
dpritchett
I played with a Nook Color and with an iPad 2 at Best Buy last weekend. The
Nook felt like it was _worth_ approximately half an iPad, which is about how
it's priced.

Granted, that's a great niche to be in. My reservations: it had a weak
speaker, it felt a bit bendy, and it didn't seem to rotate the screen too
often when I switched from horizontal to vertical orientation. I don't think
its software was designed to rotate as often as iOS does. I can definitely see
having one of these around the house to hack on but it's got flaws.

~~~
muhfuhkuh
_"My reservations: it had a weak speaker, it felt a bit bendy, and it didn't
seem to rotate the screen too often when I switched from horizontal to
vertical orientation."_

The speaker is positioned in the rear and it pushes sound away. I'm sure they
did that for aesthetic (decluttered front bezel) and functional (no worrying
about getting schmutz in the speaker grill) reasons. But, yeah, that causes
distant, disembodied sound.

I find my Nook Color solidly built for the price. The nice glass screen (I use
an anti-glare screen protector to use it outside) is super-responsive almost
to a fault. The plastic bezel is solid and finished well and doesn't seem to
flex or pop when I hold it. The back plastic has a really grippy rubber
coating that makes it nice to hold in one hand, as well. I think if they were
to iterate, they should do away with the front plastic bezel and rock a total
glass front, but I give it nice marks. I'd certainly consider paying up to 100
more for it and not be dissatisfied.

About rotation, I think it's Apple's use of transitional animation that makes
it _feel_ like it's more responsive and, thus, more "accustomed" to it. The NC
has the same accelerometer chip as the Xoom, so I think if you perceive any
lag, it could be in the redrawing of the screen.

That said, if you'd ever buy one, forgo all the installed software, root the
device, and put a version of Cyanogenmod 7 (2.3 Gingerbread) on it. I use
phiredrop 6. Stable as a table, full Android Market (and Amazon, btw), and
youtube in fullscreen and flash in the browser.

~~~
skunkworks
Weird, I have had the opposite experience re: touch screen responsiveness.
Difficulty turning pages, multiple "clicks" to get a button to work, etc.

Being the owner of both an iPad and a rooted Nook Color, there's a pretty
large quality gap between the two. That's not to say the NC is terrible -- the
NC is actually a serious value buy -- but it's a testament to the competitive
advantage that Apple has over everyone else in the tablet market.

~~~
nollidge
I have the same problems with touch responsiveness. It takes often takes
multiple hits on the edge of the screen to get the page to turn.

------
crocowhile
Too bad the original nook is still stuck to an obsolete version for that is
the one with paper screen that may compete more with kindle ( i have one of
those and I regret buying it btw)

------
allwein
I just took a look at the FAQ for Nook Color, and I have to admit I'm a little
disappointed at the battery characteristics:

Only 8 hours to a charge.

Takes 3-4 hours to recharge.

No USB Charging.

------
gordonbowman
this is great to see. pandora while you read anyone?

------
GiraffeNecktie
Yet ANOTHER Android app store? Gimme a break. How many is it now? I've lost
count.

~~~
spiffworks
Its three. Crows can count that much.

~~~
GiraffeNecktie
When you need a count of app stores, don't ask a crow.

Let's see there's ... Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Android Marketplace, GetJar,
various device manufacturers (Lenovo, Motorola, General Mobile), and various
phone companies around the world. [http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/12/30/the-
ongoing-mess-of-andr...](http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/12/30/the-ongoing-mess-
of-android%E2%80%99s-app-store-fragmentation/)

There's probably at least a dozen, if not more.

~~~
Kylekramer
How many stores can you purchase Windows or Mac software from? That towers
over the Android stores. Why should mobile be different?

~~~
GiraffeNecktie
Actually there's a massive difference. I'm not forced to buy software only
from Dell just because I bought a Dell computer, or only from Verizon just
because Verizon provides my Internet access. Or join the "HP Developer
Program" and download the "HP SDK" just so I can sell my Windows app through
the "HP App store" to someone using an HP laptop.

If all the app stores were just stores competing on a level playing field it
would be a good thing, but they're obviously not. Most of these are not real
"stores", they are schemes for extorting money from users and developers by
_removing_ (not enhancing) their ability to choose.

~~~
Andrex
Uh you can sideload apps there Paco. Just like on Windows and Mac. All the
Android app stores are purely optional.

