In matching that barely profitable price, Barnes & Noble aims to do what it's always done: profit from selling books. Sony responded with a $199, five-inch screen reader known as the Pocket Edition, and Amazon cut its price twice, now offering its second-generation Kindle for $259. In June, e-book maker Interead released the Cool-ER, a $249 device that undercut the $300-plus offerings from Over the last year, the price of e-readers has been dropping dramatically. 'They're not making any money off this device.' 'With two screens and a built-in wireless subscription, they're offering more than Amazon for the same price,' says Epps. 'This is the most full-featured, fun, stylish and easy to use e-reader on the market.'īut Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps says that the impressive set of capabilities combined with a $259 price tag adds up to another Nook feature that is less favorable for Barnes & Noble: a thin, or possibly non-existent profit margin.

'This is Nook,' Barnes & President William Lynch told a crowd at the device's New York launch, as he held up the slim gadget. The operating system will allow Barnes & Noble to introduce new applications for Nook over time, though the company hasn't revealed whether third-party developers will also be invited to develop applications for the device. RunningĪndroid operating system, it switches between a virtual keyboard and an iPhone-like scrollable display of titles. That touch screen in particular is a flashy upgrade to the e-reader format.

Barnes and noble nook reader machines