The holiday season is becoming increasingly competitive in the e-reader sphere to say the least. The Amazon Kindle Fire, Kindle Touch, Barnes and Noble Nook Tablet, Kobo Vox, and many new devices are entering the fray with updated models. The hardware to read books is becoming more refined and giving you more bang for your buck. Amazon recently introduced a $79 Kindle a few weeks ago, that is quickly becoming very popular due to the price point. Barnes and Noble is trying to match the online retailer with its own Simple Touch Reader price drop. Starting Monday, the STR will be sold in all retail locations for paltry $99.99.
Both the $79 Kindle and the Nook Simple Touch have a fair bit in common. They both rely on a virtual keyboard instead of a tangible one and lack audio functionality. The main allure with both of these models is the price, sub $100 is within most peoples budgets for their own use or a gift. Suffice it to say, both ecosystems offer a wide array of content in the form of books, newspapers, and magazines. The big differences is that the Simple Touch is a touchscreen e-reader! It also has a MicroSD card to increase the amount of internal storage. Of course, the Kindle has none of that.
The price drop on the Simple Touch Reader follows suit with the recent decrease of the seminal Nook Color. Starting this weekend, the Nook Color will be available for $199 and will maintain the price until all stock is depleted. The nation’s largest bookseller will be unveiling the new Nook Tablet on Monday. We have full leaked specs and pictures on this new device, and will tell you how it stacks up against the Kindle Fire.
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.
