The first reviews are out on Barnes & Noble’s eReader, the Nook. Like the device itself apparently, they don’t make for pretty reading.
The influential reviewer David Pogue, writing in the New York Times, accuses B&N of rushing the product to market before it is ready and says: “To use the technical term, it’s slower than an anesthetized slug in winter.”
Peter Svensson, AP Technology writer, begins his review equally unpromisingly: “I’ve been trying Barnes & Noble Inc.’s $259 Nook for a few days, and I’m not eager to prolong the acquaintance,” he says.
Both reviewers have problems with the Nook’s software, its E Ink screen and the colour touch-panel below it.
Svensson says there are numerous problems with the interface and Pogue describes the software as “half-baked”, slow and “buggy”. “Navigating the Nook makes the 1040 tax form seem like a breeze,” he says.
Svensson says there is a frustrating mismatch between the speeds of the colour and E Ink screens and Pogue complains the touch screen is non-responsive and the E Ink one needs three seconds to turn a page.
Pogue says the Amazon Kindle is faster, thinner, lighter and much easier to figure out for the same price, while the US-only Nook had been rushed out in the hope of “stealing some of the Kindle’s holiday cheer.”
Barnes & Noble has struggled to get the device out in time for Christmas in sufficient numbers and said on Monday “overwhelming demand” from people ordering online would prevent in-store sales until January.
The Nook has been available for demonstration purposes in stores – a Computerworld reporter tried one and said he found moving from screen to screen awkward and annoying.
This may all sound a marketing disaster for Barnes & Noble, but the bookseller has two things in its favour.
First, the scarcity of the device means consumers at large will not have had time to form a proper opinion. Second, like most products these days, the Nook’s bugs and speed problems can be addressed with a firmware update.
B&N’s engineers will be working overtime on that, given the media’s damning first read on the device.
