Nook Simple Touch II

[Mark R]

I contacted Barnes and Noble support department and informed them that I read an article that the e-Reader sales declined since the advent of the new tablets coming out. I informed B&N that they have a good product that is capable of running 3rd party applications, but with the current OS and the way they have it locked down for e-Reading, it is prevented from doing so.

Here is what I received from them. If more peole contact them, we may be able to sway them to open up the OS.

From B&N:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for writing to us.

We reviewed your concerns regarding enabling the NOOK Simple Touch device with third party apps. Your feedback is very important to us at Barnes & Noble and we appreciate your taking the time to send us your opinion. We assure you that we have reviewed the issues you have raised with the appropriate people on our design team and they are under consideration for implementation. We truly value your patronage.

Thank you again for your comments.

We look forward to your next visit.

Sincerely,

Edited March 11, 2013 by Mark R

[Jane]

Just as a guess... I'd suggest looking back at the Gillette model in the pre-plastic era.

They practically gave away the razors. They made their money on the blades.

Cell phone companies do that as well with the "free" phone that locks you into a two-year contract.

B&N wants to sell content. I doubt that they make a fortune off of Nook hardware itself.

[Graham Smith]

I fear that reply is a typical CS non-reply reply. If you had told them that you were not happy because the Nook wouldn't work underwater when you took it scuba diving, I'll bet you would have gotten a similar reply.

[Mark R]

I'm optimistic...hopefully they open it up and we can loose the Rooting process. We'll see.

[raz-0]

They used ot have e-paper apps for the orginal nook. Now they don't don't count on them even opening up their walled garden to something like practiscore, much less them making it an unlocked epaper tablet. I know I wouldn't want the support calls or reviews that would generate.

That being said, the cost to build them has dropped so much that it is possible they are making money on them. I don't know what their warranty/customer support costs are, but the parts, shipping, etc. aren't the razor thin margins they once were and still are (mostly) on the tablets. We are also in the realm where someone like CED could probably go to a chinese manufacturer and say we want this, and you could have something equivalently capable for a reasonable price (i.e. not a huge premium over a timer).