After much speculation about whether Barnes & Noble would release new devices this year and what they would be like, the company has come out with a new high-end e-reader designed to compare with the Kindle Paperwhite and Kobo Aura HD.
The new Nook GlowLight uses the same screen and back-lighting technology as the Paperwhite and Aura HD and sells for $119 starting today — the same as the Kindle Paperwhite and less than the Aura HD ($169) or Aura ($149), from Kobo.
Unlike the other high-end e-readers, the GlowLight is white. It’s also very light (6.2 ounces, 15% lighter than the Paperwhite, according to a press release).
The new Nook also features a different shopping experience with “Now on Nook” picks from the bookseller, and a new way of organizing titles for readers: “Channels.”
More in the release below.
[Press Release]
Barnes & Noble Introduces the Lighter, Brighter New NOOK GlowLight™
The Lightest NOOK® Ever; Optimized Especially for Long-Form Reading
Perfectly Lit Pages, Sharper Text and Twice the Storage
No Annoying Ads and No Full Page Flashing for More Immersive, Distraction-Free Experience – All for the Unbeatable Value of $119
Available Beginning Today in Barnes & Noble Stores and BN.com
NOOK Media LLC, a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), one of the nation’s largest booksellers and the leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, today announced the new NOOK GlowLight™, designed especially for people who love escaping into a great book – anytime, anywhere. Tremendously light, with a fresh, contemporary design and soft-touch back that fits beautifully in the hand, NOOK GlowLight features perfectly lit pages, sharper text and advanced display technology for an optimized long-form reading experience that’s more natural and immersive than ever. Building on its bookselling heritage and deep customer insights, the company has put everything readers love into one device, enhanced the way they can discover and enjoy content old and new, and put it all in a comfortable to hold, redesigned, lightest NOOK ever. The new NOOK GlowLight is available beginning today, just in time for the holidays, at Barnes & Noble stores and at www.bn.com for just $119 – with no annoying ads.
“Barnes & Noble was the first company to recognize and answer E Ink customers’ number one request with a breakthrough integrated light for reading in the dark and today, with the new NOOK GlowLight, we’ve taken the reading experience to a new level,” said Mahesh Veerina, Chief Operating Officer of NOOK Media. “We developed an all new lightweight design that’s extremely comfortable to hold in one hand for people who love to read anytime, anywhere. Lighter and brighter, with crisp, sharp text, no full page flashing and no ads, our redesigned reading experience is more immersive than ever making the device a must-have item for long-form readers. We welcome customers to their local Barnes & Noble store where they can try the new NOOK GlowLight and see it shine.”
Less is More for the Most Effortless Reading Experience, Ever
At just 6.2 ounces, the new NOOK GlowLight isn’t only the lightest NOOK ever, it’s 15 percent lighter than the Kindle Paperwhite. Purposefully crafted for long-form reading, it features a fresh, contemporary new industrial design that is astonishingly lightweight and effortless to hold for long stretches. Its ergonomic, contoured shape fits naturally in one hand and has a soft-touch finish chosen to provide maximum comfort for marathon reading sessions. In a sea of black and grey devices, the new warm-white color was handpicked to accentuate the display’s ultra-sharp, crisp text and closer replicate print reading – making customers’ favorite books, magazines and newspapers the true focus.
The new NOOK GlowLight is also built to last with a new silky silicone trim for extra protection against falls and reengineered display area for extra durability so it’s easier than ever to take anywhere and everywhere.
Brilliantly Lit with New GlowLight
After illuminating the world of readers with the first-ever E Ink® device that let people read in any lighting conditions, Barnes & Noble’s new NOOK GlowLight now offers an even better bedtime and anytime reading experience. The redesigned GlowLight features next-generation lighting technology that is completely uniform across the display for perfectly lit pages in any environment. The light is evenly distributed, turns on instantly and adjusts with just a touch for customers to easily control the glow intensity. The built-in anti-glare screen on the reengineered display offers paper-like readability, even in bright sunlight.
Now Sharper with No Full Page Flashing
Packed with 62 percent more pixels, the new NOOK GlowLight features NOOK’s highest resolution E Ink display, pushing its award-winning digital reading experience even closer to the printed page. Text appears incredibly sharp and crisp and fonts have been especially optimized for clarity on its new display. No detail too small, the new NOOK GlowLight also includes a selection of new handcrafted and fine-tuned fonts that maximize long-form readability for ultimate eye comfort. Customers can choose from six different styles to personalize the reading experience, and adjust text size, spacing and more to their preference with just a touch.
Offering customers a more natural experience, Barnes & Noble has also eliminated full page flashing so page turns while reading on the new NOOK GlowLight are smoother, without the distracting black page refresh.
Simpler is Better for Dedicated Readers
For people who love to escape to a great book, content is what matters most and the new NOOK GlowLight introduces an all-new customer experience intuitively designed to minimize distractions and let stories shine. The home screen has been refreshed to make it easier and faster for customers to jump right into their current books, magazines and newspapers directly from the home screen, even if they’re reading more than one item at a time in the new “Reading Now” section. A permanent navigation bar at the bottom of the page offers one-touch access to Library, Shop or Search. Customers can also now easily view their entire collection of books, magazines, newspapers and side-loaded content right in Library, where book covers are rendered beautifully on the device’s new display.
Equipped with twice the storage of its closest competitor, the new NOOK GlowLight can hold up to 2,000 books – 80 percent more than Kindle Paperwhite – to satisfy those who wish to carry a large reading collection with them wherever they go.
Enhanced Discovery and New “Shop”
Great bookstores are places for unending discovery, and the new NOOK GlowLight creates an easier, more personalized way for customers to find their next great read. The enhanced shopping experience features a new “Now on NOOK” section right on the home screen, giving readers instant access to a curated list of content suggestions from Barnes & Noble booksellers. The new Shop also delivers an array of exclusive personalized lists “Picked Just For You,” which combine the expert knowledge of Barnes & Noble booksellers with rich book data to deliver unparalleled recommendations.
The new NOOK GlowLight also brings NOOK Channels™ to the shop experience, offering customers more ways to browse the more than 3 million titles from the world’s largest digital bookstore to expand their passions for the authors and subjects they love. Customers can sample any NOOK Book® for free and download new content instantly with NOOK’s built-in Wi-Fi®. For added convenience, all NOOK content is safely stored in the NOOK Cloud™, so customers can access their books, magazines and newspapers across NOOK, personal computing and mobile devices using Free NOOK Reading Apps™. Barnes & Noble syncs your NOOK Library™ and the last page read across NOOK products and software-enabled devices so you can pick up right where you left off.
Better Value, Completely Ad-Free
The new NOOK GlowLight is available at Barnes & Noble stores and www.bn.com beginning October 30, just in time for the holidays. A better value than its closest competitor, it offers customers a stunning and seamless reading experience in any environment, completely free of annoying ads – all for just $119. Through the end of the year, new and existing Barnes & Noble members can enjoy 10 percent off the new NOOK GlowLight, making it the perfect gift for friends and family.
The company also created new Clip On Covers, colorful, stylish accessories that attach to the left or right side of NOOK GlowLight and don’t add extra heft to the ultra-lightweight device.
As always, Barnes & Noble offers free in-store support and expertise at its nearly 700 bookstores nationwide where its 40,000 booksellers are trained to provide free tech support, set-up new devices and help people discover their next favorite read. Customers can also get even more out of their new NOOK GlowLight in Barnes & Noble stores though free in-store browsing and the ability to read any NOOK Book for free for one hour while connected to Wi-Fi at any location, just like browsing the physical shelves.
About Barnes & Noble, Inc.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS) is a Fortune 500 company and the leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products. The company operates 674 Barnes & Noble bookstores in 50 states, and one of the Web’s largest e-commerce sites, BN.com (www.bn.com). Its NOOK Media LLC subsidiary is a leader in the emerging digital reading and digital education markets. The NOOK digital business offers award-winning NOOK® products and an expansive collection of digital reading and entertainment content through the NOOK Store® (www.nook.com), while Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC operates 692 bookstores serving over 4.6 million students and faculty members at colleges and universities across the United States. Barnes & Noble is proud to be named a J.D. Power and Associates 2012 Customer Service Champion and is only one of 50 U.S. companies so named. Barnes & Noble.com is ranked the number one online retailer in customer satisfaction in the book, music and video category and a Top 10 online retailer overall in customer satisfaction according to ForeSee E-Retail Satisfaction Index (Spring Top 100 Edition).
General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company’s corporate website: www.barnesandnobleinc.com.
NOOK®, NOOK Store®, NOOK Video™, and NOOK Video Apps™ are trademarks of Barnes & Noble, Inc. Other trademarks referenced in this release are the property of their respective owners.
Follow Barnes & Noble on Twitter (www.bn.com/twitter), Facebook (www.facebook.com/barnesandnoble) and YouTube (www.youtube.com/barnesandnoble).
About NOOK Media LLC
NOOK reading and entertainment products make it easy to Read What You Love, Anywhere You Like™ with a fun, easy-to-use and immersive digital reading experience. With NOOK, customers gain access to the expansive NOOK Store® of more than 3 million (US) and 2.5 million (UK) digital books, plus periodicals, comics, apps, movies and TV shows, and the ability to enjoy content across a wide array of popular devices through Free NOOK Reading Apps™ and NOOK Video Apps™, available at www.nook.com/freenookapps. NOOK owners receive Always Free NOOK Support in any of Barnes & Noble’s nearly 700 bookstores. Find NOOK devices in Barnes & Noble stores and online atwww.nook.com, as well as leading retailers including Best Buy, Walmart, Target and many others. NOOK products are available in the United Kingdom at leading retailers; NOOK content can be purchased at www.nook.co.uk.