subject: Kindle vs Nook The Ebook Reader Wars Customer Wins! [print this page] (*Authors note: The features and prices are constantly changing so to get up to date info check the links at the bottom. Regards Dave)
The ever improving features of both the Kindle and the Nook means that the differences between the two are diminishing all the time.
So, lets take a quick look at what is on offer. We compare the 3g/WiFi enabled versions of each.
The features of the latest Amazon Kindle 3G WiFi include:
The latest E-Ink screen for better contrast and readability, you can read your Kindle in bright daylight so reading Dickens on the beach is a possibility.
Enhanced battery life so you can carry on reading for longer. Around seven days according to users
Storage capability of around three and half thousand books.
Light and portable as a real book, weighing only just over eight ounces it slips easily into you bag.
Huge library, nearly three quarters of a million books available to buy and nearly two million free books which are public domain or out of copyright.
Easy downloads with the free wireless connectivity.
Features of the Barnes & Noble Nook include:
E-Ink screen as the Kindle. Sixteen tone gray with great contrast.
Secondary color screen for navigation, this make the device look slightly cleaner than the Kindle but really has nothing to do with the real purpose.
Weight is slighly more than the Kindle but the dimensions are a touch lower, still portable and easy to carry.
Battery life is not quite as good at around five days
Good library at just over a million titles but they are signing more and more as time goes by.
So, the features are fairly even so who has the edge in the Kindle vs Nook war?
I think it comes down to a couple of things which are pretty essential to the e-book reader arena, i.e. trust and content.
Whilst Amazon have stuck to their guns in the format of the Kindle ebooks they do support a variety of other formats such as Microsoft Word (DOC, DOCX), PDF, HTML, TXT, RTF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, PRC and MOBI files.
The Nook on the other hand supports pdf and ePub documents but not DOC or HTML files which I consider to be a serious drawback.
Amazon have been in the online world a very long time and have the edge on Barnes and Noble.
Amazon were by no means the first to come up with the idea of portable e-book readers but they have demonstrated their determination to get their products out into the marketplace with a huge development program.
A further thought I have is that Amazon, by engaging the support of thousands, if not millions of internet affiliates will always have the promotional support that development of any kind needs.
Competition is certain to carry on growing amongst developers of these devices and that can only be a good thing for us, competition has and will drive the prices down and so, in the Kindle versus Nook war it is customers who win.
Kindle vs Nook The Ebook Reader Wars Customer Wins!
