Barnes & Noble's

There are reports that Barnes & Noble are readying a new e-reader, which will be released during the Spring of 2012. There aren't any more details, but it is expected that this will be a new E Ink based e-reader.

via Engadget

Barnes & Noble says that Nook sales increased 70% compared to the holiday season of 2010 (they are referring to the last nine weeks of the year). The Simple Touch e-reader sales were actually below expectations, but the Tablets sold very well.

B&N are now considering the option of spinning the Nook line off. They say that Nook sales (e-readers and e-books, probably) were worth around $1.5 billion in 2011, and they project a continued growth in the US and internationally in the next 12 months.

B&N launched the Nook Tablet today, but they also announced a price cut for the Nook Touch: now $99 down from $139. They also changed the device's name to the Nook Simple Touch. This e-reader has a 6" 800x600 Pearl E Ink display that supports touch, 2GB of internal memory, a microSD slot and a micro-USB connector. It supports ePub and PDF file formats and weights 226 grams.

There are reports that on November 16th Barnes & Noble will launch a new Tablet/E-reader called the Nook Tablet. This Android based device will have a color 7" IPS LCD (1024x600), a 1.2Ghz processor, 1GBN of RAM and 16GB of flash memory. B&N sees this as an upgrade to the Nook Color, and obviously as a competitor to the Kindle Fire.

The same reports suggest that on the same date B&N will lower the price of the Nook Touch from $139 to $99 - the same price of Amazon's Kindle Touch (with ads).

There are reports that Barnes & Noble will release the Nook Color 2 within a few weeks. The company secured orders for around 2 to 3 million units by the end of 2011. The Nook 2 will have a 7" color LCD display and beside reading will offer email, music, games and apps.

B&N's CEO commented that he expected US$1 billion in digital revenues by 2013. The company will have to sell around 10 million Nook/Nook-Color units by 2012 to reach that goal.

Barnes & Noble announced a narrowing in first quarter losses - on a 2% hike in sales, largely from its e-reader product line. They say that plan to to continue investing in the significant growth areas of their business - digital sales.

The Nook Touch is getting great reviews and it's apparantly selling quite well. The Wi-Fi version is now shipping for $139.

B&N are now giving a free 2GB microSD with 30 digital books - for everyone who upgrades to a Nook Touch. You simply have to show your old e-reader when you buy the new one. This will last 'until supply lasts' (not sure how digital books can run out of supply, maybe they mean the 2GB card).

The 30 digital books represent a variety of genres including Cooking, Kids, Classics, Humor, Lifestyle, Fiction, Sports, History, True Crime and Reference. Some of the free titles include: The Good Housekeeping Cookbook, Cristina Ferrare’s Big Bowl of Love, Creating Your Best Life, Glory in the Fall: The Greatest Moments in World Series History, 21st Century Crossword Puzzle Dictionary, My Boyfriend Wrote a Book About Me and timeless favorites including Secret Garden and Robinson Crusoe. Learn more about this program at www.nook.com/thebest.