Digitimes is reporting that Barnes and Noble will be upgrading their Android operating system found on the Nook Color to Android 2.2 in January of 2011. This will give more functionality to the Nook Color, although it will not have access to the Android Market.
The absence of the Google Android Market is intentional on the part of Barnes and Noble, whom outsources the production of the Nook to manufacturing stalwart Inventec. B&N has their own application development via NookDeveloper.
Barnes & Noble’s latest Nook Color adopts TPK Touch Solution’s touch interface, and has clearly shown the vendor’s intention to enter the tablet PC market. Barnes and Nobles strong library of eBooks and magazines/newspapers clearly is strong competition to Amazon and its Kindle line of e-Readers, but also a fair number of tablet computers, who rely solely on the Google Android Market for their content.
Rival tablets include the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the Apple iPad, who do not have the extensive library that retail juggernaut Barnes and Noble has.
Although Amazons Kindle e-Readers are sparse this holiday season, Barnes and Noble has manufactured over one million Nook Colors for this holiday season.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
