S-NOOK-ered: Middle of the Road Product Management

Is Barnes and Noble building half an iPad?

I am digging the Smartphone platform wars. It really is exciting to watch the pace of innovation and how the major players are picking their position and the methods they are using to capture market share. In my opinion an inevitable casualty of the evolution of the Smartphone operating system development will clearly be the eReader. It was with that perspective that I read this piece in the WSJ regarding Barnes and Nobles announcement of their ‘Color Nook’ (sidebar: I find it a little curious that the position statement that comes through consistently loud and clear in press coverage about the device is that it is in color).

I had a boss once who loved Jack Welch management cliché’s (he was a GE disciple I think they all like Jack Welch management cliché’s) and one of his favorites was “if you stay in the middle of the road you double your chances of getting hit”. I think it aptly applies to what the color Nook represents. The report in the journal claims that it is lighter than the iPad, displays content like the iPad, offers the ability to play music and video like the iPad, can view email like the iPad, look at websites like he iPad, read digital versions of popular periodicals like the iPad, plays games that like the iPad (but they’re ‘basic), and costs about half as much as the iPad.

 

That is what the majority of the positioning says along with several publishers who have decided to push content on the new device. So the message from Barnes and Noble is that they are focusing on delivering a tablet exclusively for the reader, and I would say about 80% of the article reinforced this position by spelling out the tablet-like (iPad like really) functionality along with the fawning support of the publishing partners.

I have to admit I didn’t get it. Why would I as a consumer invest in a device that is. . .well. . .half an iPad? But finally in the later portions of the piece was this almost throwaway line, “The Nook Color’s software is based on Google Inc.’s Android operating system, and Barnes & Noble plans to open up development of further extras to outside programmers.”

THIS is why I love the Smartphone platform wars. The Apple and Google strategies are completely different from one another, and the open device and programming that Google has nurtured allows the likes of Barnes and Noble to lay bets like this. The question then becomes whether or not the investment is wise.

My opinion is that it is going to be a difficult road to travel. By dipping a tow in the tablet water they may as well be in the whole pool. Publishers won’t develop content exclusively for either the iOS nor the Android operating system. . . at least not for the foreseeable future. So this leaves the Nook with no clear differentiation of content consumption, nor advantage in publishing. Therefore the only way they’ll be able to compete for market share is to differentiate with functionality. Dumbing down an already ridiculously easy to use interface so that it nails the preferences of the ‘reader’ doesn’t seem as though it will be quite enough of a differentiator.

It will be interesting to see how the race shapes up and what Amazon’s next move will be. But until things come into focus I’m afraid that Barnes and Noble may have just camped out right smack in the middle of the road.

photo credit: Phil Roeder