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Nov 07 – Nov 13, 2011 Edition Barnes & Noble Introduces Nook Tablet New York, NY/November 7, 2011–Barnes & Noble, Inc. today expanded its portfolio of bestselling NOOK® devices with the introduction of NOOK Tablet, the companys fastest and lightest tablet with the best in HD entertainment. NOOK Tablet offers access to popular movies, TV shows, music and more through the top entertainment services, including Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora and others, plus a collection of high-quality apps, fast Web browsing and e-mail.
NOOK Tablet features Barnes & Nobles award-winning color reading experience, with access to the worlds largest digital bookstore via Wi-Fi®. Now available for pre-order at www.nook.com and at Barnes & Noble stores for just $249, NOOK Tablet will be in stores and in homes on or about November 17. Find NOOK Tablet in the newly announced NOOK Digital Shops, which feature the full portfolio of NOOK digital devices and FREE NOOK Reading Apps at neighborhood Barnes & Noble stores.
Barnes & Noble also announced enhancements and incredibly new low prices for NOOK Color, the first-ever Readers Tablet, and NOOK Simple Touch, the first breakthrough touch E Ink® device. The critically acclaimed NOOK Color will be even better next month, with more than 100 feature enhancements, access to top video and music services, popular apps, comics and more and an even better value at todays new incredibly low price of $199. The new and improved NOOK Simple Touch features the worlds fastest page turns and longest battery life, and an amazing new price of $99 with no annoying ads.
In NOOK Tablet, weve created the best wireless media tablet in the portable 7-inch class. NOOK Tablets VividView display has been designed to be the worlds finest screen for readability and viewing content. Weve utilized that breakthrough display technology to bring consumers the largest digital catalog of color and interactive books, magazines, childrens books and high-quality apps through our NOOK Store. Additionally, weve seamlessly integrated todays top entertainment services like Netflix, Hulu Plus and Pandora in a product thats powerful, easy-to-use, under a pound, and a tremendous value at only $249, said William Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble. Were also excited to announce that weve lowered the price of our award-winning and recently improved NOOK Simple Touch to just $99, ad-free. Lastly, our incredibly popular NOOK Color has a new low price of only $199, giving customers the ability to enjoy its unparalleled reading experience, apps, Web and e-mail. These three products, at these super-low prices, represent the highest-quality portfolio of reading and entertainment products on the market at the best value. We welcome customers to learn more about our bestselling NOOK product line from our friendly and well-trained NOOKsellers at our new NOOK Digital Shops at their neighborhood Barnes & Noble.
NOOK Tablet was designed for customers who want to read and be entertained with a variety of apps and media. Barnes & Noble designed the device for power, speed and responsiveness using the latest and most advanced technology. With a highly tuned 1GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM, theres plenty of memory to stream HD videos smoothly, browse the Web, and switch between books, magazines, videos and apps effortlessly. Barnes & Noble developed revolutionary battery life with NOOK Tablet, enabling 11.5 hours of reading time or nine hours of video viewing the equivalent of five full-length movies. Everything looks stunning on NOOK Tablet, which features the worlds most advanced VividView display for viewing content, with 16 million colors and a resolution purity thats simply gorgeous. Barnes & Noble invested in full IPS lamination to reduce reflection and glare and offer extra-wide viewing angles perfect for sharing.
NOOK Tablet gives customers the best names in entertainment so they can choose the TV shows and movies they love from leading services like Netflix and Hulu Plus, both pre-loaded on NOOK Tablet and offering free trials. Customers can instantly stream brilliant HD-quality videos. Also coming soon to NOOK Tablet: Flixster with UltraViolet, for newly released movies and TV shows from Warner Bros. and other leading studios. NOOK Tablet owners can listen to millions of songs using the hottest music services, including Pandora, pre-loaded on NOOK Tablet, as well as Rhapsody®, Grooveshark and MOG, all available with a free 14-day trial. NOOK Tablet owners can also listen to their own songs wherever they go with the built-in music player.
Reading and Entertainment Content Anywhere: A powerful HD entertainment machine designed for maximum portability, NOOK Tablet is well under a pound (14.1 oz.), making it one-third lighter than the leading tablet and 10 percent lighter than the award-winning NOOK Color. Sleek and thin with a soft touch back design, NOOK Tablet can be held comfortably for extended periods with just one hand and slips easily into a pocket or purse for reading and entertainment on-the-go. And with 16GB of storage double the space of some other tablets plus expandable memory, customers have ample space for their reading and entertainment content, regardless of Wi-Fi availability.
Customers can also access their personal NOOK Library through the free, stable and secure NOOK Cloud service, which also powers the seamless integration and synchronization between devices, as well as NOOKs best-in-class shopping experience and social features.
Apps, Web & E-mail: Barnes & Noble offers NOOK Tablet customers a wide array of top-rated NOOK Apps to play, learn, organize and explore with must-haves like Angry Birds Rio and Seasons, SCRABBLE, Epicurious, My Cast Weather, Taptu, Style.com, Spanish for Dummies, Bejeweled® 2, Ms. Pac Man and more. There are hundreds of popular apps for kids, including Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hat, Drawing Pad and Pop Up Peter Rabbit. All NOOK Apps are the best, highest-quality versions available, optimized for NOOK Tablets beautiful and ultra-responsive 7-inch color touchscreen. By the holidays, Barnes & Noble will offer thousands of high-quality NOOK Apps from leading third-party developers and content providers that can be enjoyed on NOOK Tablet, as well as NOOK Color.
NOOK Tablet also features lightning-fast Web browsing so customers can surf their favorite sites, from Facebook to YouTube, and stream brilliant HD videos. NOOK Tablets built-in e-mail also makes it easy to stay connected with friends and family.
Barnes & Nobles Award-Winning Reading Experience: NOOK Tablet customers can shop the worlds largest bookstore, featuring more than 2.5 million books, enhanced books, interactive magazines, newspapers, comic books and childrens books. Content downloads lightning-fast, usually in less than 10 seconds over Wi-Fi.
NOOK Color: Even Better, Now $199: The highly acclaimed, bestselling NOOK Color will be even better starting in December with Barnes & Nobles largest software update ever and a new low price of just $199 starting today. The first ever Readers Tablet, NOOK Color combines an award-winning reading experience with tablet essentials including apps, Web and e-mail. The millions of existing NOOK Color customers will automatically receive the update at no cost via Wi-Fi, beginning in early December. Highlights, also available on NOOK Tablet, include:
More entertainment and apps: NOOK Color customers will be able to download Netflix to watch movies and TV shows. Hulu Plus will also be available for NOOK Color in the coming months. Customers will enjoy top music services and thousands of apps including games, childrens apps and many others. Read your way: Customers requested the flexibility to read books in portrait or landscape and adjust the text with even more font sizes to choose from. The most user-friendly library: Customers will have faster, easier access to all of their content. NOOK Library is organized with tabs for books, magazines, newspapers and apps. The magazine display shows virtual stacks of covers with dates so customers can just tap on the issue they want and dive in. Enhanced shopping: NOOKs amazing new Shop experience makes it easier than ever for customers to find their next great book, kids book, newsstand title or app. The NOOK Store is even easier to use, and more social and streamlined to show the breadth of content. Customers get suggestions based on their favorite authors, reviews and recommendations from their NOOK Friends plus top NOOK Newsstand picks, free trials and new NOOK Daily Finds.
NOOK Simple Touch: The award-winning NOOK Simple Touch now has the most advanced E Ink display with lightning-fast page turns 25 percent faster than any other E Ink product on the market. Best-Text from Barnes & Noble meticulously optimizes each letter so words are ultra-crisp and clear, even in bright sunlight. NOOK Simple Touch has an ergonomic, contoured design with a soft-touch back that makes it easy and comfortable to read, even with just one hand, and for extended periods of time. And Barnes & Noble has extended NOOK Simple Touchs best-in-class battery life even further for its customers who love to read for long stretches. On a single charge, customers can now read for up to 2 months for one hour a day. NOOK Simple Touch also puts the focus on reading with no annoying ads, and instead lets customers personalize their screensaver with their own photos.
Now just $99, still with no ads, NOOK Simple Touch is the worlds best reader at the worlds best value and a must-have this holiday season for anyone who loves to read. Existing NOOK Simple Touch customers can also enjoy these new benefits through a free v1.1 software update available today for immediate download at www.nook.com/update. Customers can also receive the free update over the air when connected to Wi-Fi in the coming weeks.
Availability: NOOK Tablet can be pre-ordered for $249 today and is expected to be in stores and in homes late next week, in plenty of time for the holidays. Experience NOOK Tablet, NOOK Color and NOOK Simple Touch at www.nook.com or at the NOOK Digital Shops and displays in one of Barnes & Nobles more than 700 bookstores and other leading retailers. Barnes & Noble offers Always Free NOOK Support in all of its neighborhood bookstores, with more than 40,000 NOOKsellers across the country ready to assist customers with setting up their NOOK devices or choosing their next great read.
About Barnes & Noble, Inc.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS), the world’s largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 704 bookstores in 50 states. Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, also operates 635 college bookstores serving over 4.6 million students and faculty members at colleges and universities across the United States. Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through BN.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web’s largest e-commerce sites, which also features more than two million titles in its NOOK Bookstore (www.bn.com/ebooks). Through Barnes & Nobles NOOK eReading product offering, customers can buy and read digital books and content on the widest range of platforms, including NOOK devices, partner company products, and the most popular mobile and computing devices using free NOOK software.
