I think it could have worked a year ago. Then, they had a very plausible "reader's tablet" - something with a reading focus that does more than an e-reader, but without being as bulky/expensive as the iPad.
But they launched it with no 3rd-party apps, so instead it appeared on the market as merely a "color e-reader" - something that costs more and has less battery life, all in the service of a color screen that mostly only provides a tangibly better experience for a subset of periodicals. But nobody really reads The Economist for the pictures, and People subscribers probably aren't big players in the target demographic.
They did later bring out an app market. But it was months late and anemic; not the kind of thing that was likely to turn many heads. And they didn't push that idea hard. So Amazon comes along and does, and I fear that from here out anything that B&N could possibly do will be too little, too late.
But they launched it with no 3rd-party apps, so instead it appeared on the market as merely a "color e-reader" - something that costs more and has less battery life, all in the service of a color screen that mostly only provides a tangibly better experience for a subset of periodicals. But nobody really reads The Economist for the pictures, and People subscribers probably aren't big players in the target demographic.
They did later bring out an app market. But it was months late and anemic; not the kind of thing that was likely to turn many heads. And they didn't push that idea hard. So Amazon comes along and does, and I fear that from here out anything that B&N could possibly do will be too little, too late.