The Nook Tablet entered a crowded tablet marketplace at a retail price $150 to $250 less than the most popular tablets at the time of its release. Along with the $199 Kindle Fire, these two budget priced tablet offerings put immediate downward pressure on tablet manufacturers, and combined to sell more than 7.5 million units. Putting pressure on the Apple iPad lineup, as well as other Android tablets, the Nook Tablet helped Barnes & Noble grab 5% of the tablet marketplace in 2011. For the first time ever, Apple lost 28% of their tablet market share.
Buy the Nook Tablet for $249.
In 2010 Apple garnered 87% of all tablet sales, and could manage only 62% in 2011. Aggressive pricing by the Nook Tablet, at approximately half the price of an Apple iPad or iPad 2, definitely stole market share from the number one tablet manufacturer, and also made a buying decision easier for those Android tablet shoppers who were balking at a $500 purchase. The Nook Tablet is approximately 0.88 pounds, making it slightly lighter than the Kindle Fire, the tablet most similar to it.
The Nook Tablet actually delivers better display pixel density than the popular and best selling Apple iPad 2, at 169 pixels per inch, for 1024 x 600 pixels overall. That display is also delivered in 16 million unique colors, and capacitive, multitouch gestures are used to navigate the tablet. And in one area, the Nook Tablet nearly doubles the performance of the Kindle Fire and Apple iPad 2. The Nook Tablet comes equipped with 1.0 GB of RAM memory, whereas the Kindle Fire and Apple iPad 2 each deliver 512 MB. And in terms of storage, the Nook Tablet beats both its top two competitors again.
The Nook Tablet comes with 16 GB of storage preloaded, and a microSD slot for storage expansion. The Kindle Fire delivers 8 GB storage on board, and has no storage expansion microSD slot. The Apple iPad 2 can be purchased in 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB models, and none of those tablets offer a microSD slot for storage expansion. In the price war, the Nook Tablet is only bested by the Kindle Fire, and arrives at approximately half the price of the comparable Apple iPad 2 16 GB model. The Nook Tablet offers Wi-Fi wireless access with no contract required, and e-book downloads from Barnes & Noble take less than 60 seconds. A single battery charge on the Nook Tablet can last up to 60 days at a consumption rate of 30 minutes per day.
Buy the Nook Tablet for $249
Buy the Nook Simple Touch for $99
Buy the Nook Color for $199
