B&N to Ship New Tablet, eReader in October, Sources Say
Aside from constantly lowering the price and changing their minds on production decisions, Barnes & Noble hasn’t gotten much press for their hardware these past couple months. But that is about to change.
Two different sources inside B&N have independently told me that Barnes & Noble has new hardware launching next month. For obvious reasons I cannot tell you their names, but I can say that the reports agreed with past leaks and included enough detail to convince me.
One of my sources works at a B&N store, and they said that a new tablet is launching in October. He caught sight of a memo which mentioned specifically a tablet (and not just a device). The memo didn’t include details on the launch date, unfortunately, but my source also told me that their store was projected to have higher digital sales in October than previous months.
I was also told that the expected increase in sales was large enough that it very likely indicated a tablet. Past ereader launches didn’t generate as large of a jump in sales, or so I was told.
Or perhaps I should say that an ereader launch alone wouldn’t be enough to generate the expected spike in sales, because my other source has indicated that B&N is launching a tablet and an ereader in the next few weeks.
Again, I don’t have specs (yet), but I was told that the launch is expected to happen before 1 October, which would tie in quite well with past leaks.
As you probably recall, in early August I posted about 3 leaked product listings for accessories for new Nook models. Those leaked product listings said that the accessories would be available by 1 October which is only 2 weeks away. My source at the time expected them to be called the Nook SW and Nook AV, but I thought those were code words – SW being short for Nook Simply White and Nook AV (audio/video) indicating that it was a tablet.
That is just speculation, but at this point I think there is a greater than even chance that the rumors are true. Even B&N has said that they will launch new hardware; the only thing we didn’t know for sure was when or what kind.
But now that I have 3 different sources of info, I would say that the launch is a near certainty.
Nook Aura HD, anyone?
P.S. If anyone has info they would like to leak or rumors they would like to share, feel free to leave an anonymous comment. As you can see I do not reveal my sources.
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