Beth wrote on January 15th, 2010 at 11:30:46 AMEvil Genius talks Kindle Vs. nook and opts to go with Kindle for the moment due to nook’s sloooooooowneeeeessss. EG does like nook’s display better, as well as the ability to change fonts, but thinks consumers should leave the 1.0 devices to the early adopters.
In the final analysis, I’d recommend against buying the Nook 1.0. This is not a final, durable recommendation. I didn’t buy a Kindle 1.0 or any other Gadget 1.0 either. I find it best to let other people back in the worst problems and I’ll swoop in later when those are fixed. For the identical money and with the differences in usability, I don’t think $259 today is a good investment for a Nook 1.0. The good thing for Nook users is that most of my problems with the device are potentially fixable in software (B&N demo I used had 1.1.0 version on it.) Just like the Kindle’s 2.3.0 update made the device significantly better, a future software update could make the Nook much better. If I were an undecided consumer, I’d make B&N fix it before I gave them my money.
This is a fair recommendation. nook is definitely a work-in-progress. However, it’s clear that early adopters aren’t the only purchasers of nook, which means that BN has to roll out more updates or run the risk of alienating some of their biggest fans–folks who took the change on a 1.0 device because of the BN name.
Then again, some folks haven’t had a single problem with their nooks, so is it a matter of hardware quality control? Even if this is the case, obviously BN needs to take care of the problem.
Thanks Teleread.
The ORIGINAL Kindle in it’s ORIGINAL software release was horrendous compared to todays Kindle. The problem is, once a product goes mainstream, it’s no longer acceptable to say “well it’s the first version, it will get better”. This is what Barnes and Noble is fighting. Based on the speed of the 1.1.1 release and it’s speed increases for nook users, plus minor UI refinements, they may yet pull it off, but they are under the gun.
It’s the same thing smartphone vendors are feeling with the iPhone. Whenever a new phone comes out, it’s heralded as an iPhone Killer. Then the reviews come out, and the defenders of the product remind us that even the iPhone used to be flawed, it didn’t have cut and paste, there was no app store, etc. Unfortunately, when you release a product in 2010, you are competing with the 2010 marketplace, not what an emerging market looked like 2 years ago.
You can definitely get away with more when you are off-the-radar. If few are watching and the device is still marginalized, you’re safely outside of the mainstream. The early adopters are happy to have a device to play with and to ride the wave of development. The masses aren’t attracted to the device.
No doubt Barnes and Noble released nook too soon. No doubt some people are having problems. No doubt other people aren’t having any problems at all. I think the first group of people could have been greatly reduced had Barnes and Noble postponed nook’s release. Would BN have lost sales? No doubt.
At this point, it all comes down to BN delivering some solid OTA updates and making nook the product that it can and should be for all of its buyers. I think BN can do it. I’m hoping that the next update really makes nook ready for prime-time and the rest is just sweet, sweet icing.
Thanks very much for the link love. I don’t disagree with anything you or Scott say. As I said in my post, I didn’t buy a Kindle 1.0 either. However, when a company markets their gadget as an “Other Gadget Killer”, they have chosen to waive that break-in period and it is now their responsibility to deliver a solid, “Other Gadget Killing” release. I tend to buy cheap, disposable piece of crap MP3 players and I have long noticed the difference between the goodness of a device based on its spec sheet and trying to use the maddening thing every single day.
The Nook is a physically appealing device, although the navigation is truly a head scratcher. I’m not interested in proving my purchase is better than anyone else’s because I just don’t care that much. I’m looking to get things done and today the Kindle does that better for my needs in my life. That may well change and it could well be via an OTA software upgrade.
Thanks for the even-handed rebuttal. I was bracing for a flood of “Your [sic] a dick, the Kindle sucks!” comments. Tweeting some of the researching as I was doing it certainly got some of that.
Dave,
I thought you wrote a fair article, as I mentioned. It’s hard to recommend nook to the average user at this point. Maybe after the next firmware update or two, nook will be stable enough and easy enough to use for the vast majority of users. There’s so much that BN did wrong with the launch. I hope they’re taking notes.
I’m not big on calling someone with an opinion a “dick” or otherwise. True, there there are pockets of fanboyism, but I’m not interested in device worship. I *am* interested in hardware and software maturity. I want nook to be the best it can be, and I don’t think we can get to that point if we ignore the problems that exist for some people and the bugs that exist for everyone.
Thanks for your article, and hopefully, you’ll revisit nook in a few months and have need to revise your recommendation.
Beth