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Nook Touch, Nook Glow to be Sold in Dixons, PCWorld This Fall With Prices Starting at £79

Barnes & Noble continued their parade of news today with the announcement of a couple new retail partners in the UK. Dixons and Curry/PCWorld, 2 major electronics chains, will both be carrying the Nook Touch and Nook Glow in stores.

You will also find the Nook ereaders in Sainsbury stores as well as Waitrose (a subsidiary of B&N’s first UK partner John Lewis).

This brings B&N’s collection of UK retail partners up to 7 or 8, depending on how you are counting. Other partners include John Lewis, Argos, Foyles, and Blackwells. I have no details on whether the chains will sell the ebooks, but my guess is that they likely won’t. B&N seems to be planning to go it alone in ebook and content sales.

And in other news, B&N has also fixed the UK retail prices for their ereaders. The Nook Touch will be sold in its current form in the UK for £79, and the Nook Glow will cost £109. I still don’t have the launch date, but those prices are solid.

My sources have also indicated that the current Nook devices are the ones going overseas, not any still-hoped-for and not yet announced new models. As you can probably guess from the summer launches of the Nook Touch, Nook Glow, and Nook Wifi (original), B&N has a schedule for updating their ereaders. The E-ink devices aren’t expected to be refreshed until at least next spring.

And that means that the Nook is going to be without the new HD E-ink screen until at least next April or May, putting this ereader a step behind the Kobo Glo and the Kindle Paperwhite. Both those ereaders are expected to ship with the 1024×768 resolution screen. For me, that would be a good reason to get one of the newer devices – assuming the prices are similar.

While you can’t always tell the difference between the regular E-ink screen and the HD screen, I expect that Amazon will be able to show the difference. They’ve been working on showing content on E-ink screens for 6 years or more, and that is likely going to have a positive effect  on apparent screen quality of the Kindle Paperwhite.

And this just goes to show why sometimes you should hold a device while waiting for the better tech rather than launch with what you have; B&N will be a step behind the competition for another 7 to 9 months.

Edit: Due to a miscommunication with B&N’s marketing firm I’ve had to go back and remove details which were supposed to stay embargoed for a while longer.

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Comments


Mike Cane September 25, 2012 um 11:50 am

>>>And this just goes to show why sometimes you should hold a device while waiting for the better tech

B&N thought they had the better tech: the Glowlight.

Nate Hoffelder September 25, 2012 um 11:54 am

No, the higher res screen was already in the pipeline. That’s why Amazon, Kobo, and others are about to ship it.


Fbone September 25, 2012 um 3:02 pm

Did B&N announce their video service today also?

Nate Hoffelder September 25, 2012 um 3:12 pm

Yes.

Tyler September 25, 2012 um 5:28 pm

Woa woa woas…..what video service?

Nate Hoffelder September 25, 2012 um 6:07 pm

Later this year B&N will be selling video (SD and HD) from the major studios. It’s called Nook Video. I posted the story elsewhere.


Peter September 25, 2012 um 3:17 pm

Accidentally leaked news!

Oh no, did you have to deal with more unneccesarrily snarky emails from Mary Ellen Keating?

That could dampen your day.

Nate Hoffelder September 25, 2012 um 3:49 pm

No, but I was rebuked for posting details which were then announced 3 hours later. That was particularly amusing.

I mean, why spin out the UK news? It makes little sense to announce the retail partners separately and then announce the prices in yet another press release.

Peter September 25, 2012 um 3:57 pm

I think they’re going for a record: most press releases in one day.


Tim Gray September 26, 2012 um 2:32 am

Dixons, Currys and PCworld are all part of the same group.


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