At the end of this copious amount of research, I decided on the Kindle 2i (which is the international version that allows me to purchase and download e-books when I am abroad). As a consumer, I took this entire experience as an observation of parity in my decision making process. As a marketer, I noted that while Barnes & Noble may not have succeeded in earning my business, they certainly caught my attention at just the right time.
I encourage readers to make their own decision based on their needs and desires. My decision was heavily based on my need for international capabilities. If both e-readers had the same functionality outside the United States, I would still be doing the pre-purchase him-haw.
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Article comments
1 - Ryan
Nice follow up. It seems as though the buzz over this eBook reader (Nook) really died down after it was unavailable for months, everyone I know bought the Kindle 2 and has been happy with it. Do you know anyone with a Nook? I dont.
Ryan
2 - Dr Dreadful
I was given a Nook for Christmas. It worked fine for a while and then suddenly got stuck on the 'starting up' screen... for a week!
I couldn't turn the thing on; I couldn't even turn it off, because it would just reboot and get stuck again on that same screen. So I decided to just let the battery drain and see what would happen. That didn't do much good either: apparently the Nook uses minimal battery power if you just let it sit - which under normal circumstances would be a plus, but...!
Eventually I figured out how to do a hard reset (by holding the power button down for dear life for several minutes, no matter what happened) and got the thing working again. I did have to re-register it, and lost all my personal settings - but luckily, the books I'd downloaded were all still there.
So far, the thing is behaving itself again - although it still takes forever to boot up (it's like using Windows XP all over again).
Positives: easy to use, especially navigating via the touchscreen - although there's no stylus, so you have to be very precise with your fingers. It's light. It's slim enough to fit into a small backpack, a purse or a jacket pocket with ease. It's attractive to look at. You have access to millions of free Google ebooks which you can download (I've already helped myself to healthy quantities of Oscar Wilde, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte and Charles Dickens).
Negatives: it's buggy (probably, though unacceptably, to be expected from a new, first-generation product). You can only buy books from Barnes & Noble's online store. Pages take a long time (3+ seconds sometimes) to 'turn'. It's not always clear what you're getting from Google Books (I downloaded what I thought was David Copperfield, only to discover that it was just the second half of the book). The 3G wireless signal is usually feeble, unless (and sometimes even if) you're in a B&N store.
On the whole I like it, though if it decides to play silly buggers again I may just have to turn it in and buy a Kindle instead.
3 - Ginny
Just FYI, you may have figured this out already, but the nook lends to any device (PC, Mac, iPod Touch, iPhone and soon, Blackberrys) that has, by downloading, the eReader software avaliable at Barnes and Noble website.
Thats all,
4 - Geoff Hasler
Thank you everyone for your comments and tweets. I'll post a follow up to blogcritics regarding the iPad (once I get my hands on one).
5 - Regan
After reading the review here [edited], it seems like everyone is gravitating towards the Nook Color. From comments I have read on several blogs, several ereader owners say they would have purchased the Nook color if available when they purchased their unit, while others said they preferred the Nook Color, but could or wouldn't pay the additional $100.
I for one, am not convinced whether the color is worth the additional $100.
Just my $0.02 worth.