2 New Nooks to Compete for Holiday Tablet Sales

Barnes & Noble (NYS: BKS) will debut two new, HD versions of the Nook tablet in time for the holiday season. The 7" version is priced at $199, and a 9" version will also be available for $269. The goal is to compete on price with main competitor Amazon (NAS: AMZN) , namely the Kindle Fire suite of products. Last year, Amazon undercut Barnes & Noble on tablet pricing, which significantly affected Nook sales during the holiday quarter.

Will low-priced, well-timed Nooks be enough to keep Barnes & Noble in line with competition? While the company has done a commendable job transitioning away from its bricks-and-mortar origins, the answer is still, most likely, no. One problem is that the Nook has no built-in ecosystem, something that consumers demand from their tablets. The new versions will incorporate a digital video store, which is a step in the right direction, but still unable to compare to the robust ecosystems of Apple (NAS: AAPL) , Google (NAS: GOOG) and Microsoft (NAS: MSFT) tablets. Barnes & Noble simply lacks the scale to attract developer talent on par with the competition.

Watch the video below for Fool.com analyst Andrew Tonner's full take on the subject, and find out why he's calling the stock a definite "Hold."

If you're a retail investor, you have to take a look at Amazon.com. This is a company set on disrupting not only Barnes & Noble's attempts away from brick & mortar, but the entire retail sector as a whole. Whether you're looking to own Amazon itself or one of the companies it takes sales from, understanding the company and its prospects is essential. That's why we've created this new premium report on Amazon, which runs through everything investors need to know about the company. Our report also has you covered with a full year of updates as key new hits, so click here now to get started.

The article 2 New Nooks to Compete for Holiday Tablet Sales originally appeared on Fool.com.

Andrew Tonner owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple, Amazon.com, Google, and Microsoft. Motley Fool newsletter services recommend Amazon.com, Apple, and Google. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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