Barnes & Noble introduces Nook tablet, with 8GB of memory, for US$199; tablet allows consumers to read digitally, watch movies or shows, browse the web

Michelle Rivera

NEW YORK , February 21, 2012 (press release) – Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, today expanded its portfolio of bestselling NOOK® devices with the introduction of NOOK Tablet – with 8GB of memory, a tremendous value for the company’s fastest and lightest tablet at just $199. NOOK Tablet – 8GB version offers reading and mobile entertainment enthusiasts another great option in the NOOK family of devices. In addition, the company’s highly popular NOOK Color just became an even greater value at $169.

“For any customer who likes to read digitally, watch movies or TV shows, browse the web, or help their kids read and learn through interactive books and apps, our new $199 NOOK Tablet with 8GB is the best product value on the market,” said William Lynch, Chief Executive Office of Barnes & Noble. “NOOK Tablet is the highest-rated wireless media tablet in the 7-inch class, ultra-portable at under a pound, offers our exclusive VividView™ screen technology, and since its introduction this holiday has received rave reviews from customers about all its great features. We’re pleased to now offer customers the ability to experience NOOK Tablet’s unmatched content experience for only $199.”

The newest member of the NOOK Tablet family offers the great features of top-selling NOOK Tablet – 16GB, but with 8GB of on-board memory, 512MB of RAM and a lower cost of just $199. NOOK Tablet – 8GB version includes all of these great features also available on NOOK Tablet – 16GB ($249):

A highly tuned 1GHz dual-core processor for streaming video and lightning-fast Web browsing so customers can surf their favorite sites, and built-in email to stay easily connected with friends and family
Breakthrough battery life, with 11.5 hours of reading time or nine hours of video viewing
With on-board storage plus convenient microSD memory expansion, customers have ample space for their reading and entertainment content, regardless of Wi-Fi availability
The world’s most advanced VividView display for viewing content, with 16 million colors and a resolution purity that’s simply gorgeous
Popular movies, TV shows and music from top services including Netflix, Hulu Plus™, Flixster, Pandora®, Rhapsody®, Grooveshark, MOG and many more.
Thousands of top-rated, high-quality NOOK Apps, all optimized for NOOK Tablet’s ultra-responsive 7-inch color touchscreen, in categories including Games, Kids, Travel, Education, Lifestyle & Interest, News & Weather, Social, Productivity and others. Favorites including Cut the Rope, Disney Publishing’s It’s a Small World and more are coming soon to the robust NOOK Apps catalog.
Barnes & Noble’s award-winning reading experience, featuring more than 2.5 million digital books, periodicals, children’s books and more, including:
NOOK Newsstand™: An expansive collection of more than 450 digital periodical titles, which includes the largest digital collection of top 100 magazines available for subscription and single copy purchase. Colorful interactive magazines offer Barnes & Noble's ArticleView™, animated page turns and smooth pinch, zoom and panning. Many special edition NOOK Magazines™ feature videos, quizzes, image galleries and more.
NOOK Kids™: More than 1,400 interactive children’s picture books, some featuring animation and engaging activities, and more than 12,000 chapter books. With Read and Record™, customers can use NOOK Tablet’s built-in microphone to record and save their reading of any NOOK Kids picture books so children can listen to their favorite storytellers anytime.
NOOK Comics and graphic novels: A vast collection of full-color comics, graphic novels and kids’ comics in high resolution and the largest digital collection of Marvel’s graphic novels available through a third party, as well as other titles from leading publishers including Archie, IDW and Dynamite. Through a partnership with VIZ Media, LLC, the largest publisher of anime and manga in North America, NOOK customers can access more than 30 series, featuring nearly 430 volumes.
Books and more: Continuously expanded NOOK Store™ with the vast majority of books available for $9.99 or less. Barnes & Noble’s digital book collection includes PagePerfect™ NOOK Books™ featuring cookbooks, craft and art books rendered with rich precision to retain all the beauty of their stunning print versions, and enhanced reading with PDF thumbnail page views, and image pinch, zoom and pan in books and PDFs.
Discover and socialize: Learn what to read next from Barnes & Noble’s knowledgeable booksellers with personalized recommendations, or connect through NOOK Friends™ to share thoughts, lend books through the exclusive LendMe® technology and more via email and sites like Facebook.
Continuous reading: Read what you love, anywhere you like™ on NOOK devices and with FREE NOOK Reading Apps. Sync your library, last page read, bookmarks, etc. across all of your devices through NOOK Cloud.
Sleek and thin with a soft touch back design, and lightweight at under a pound (14.1 oz.), making it easy to carry in a handbag, briefcase, backpack or suit jacket pocket for reading and entertainment on-the-go.

Customers can, as always, access their personal NOOK Library™ through the free, reliable and secure NOOK Cloud™ service, which also powers the seamless integration and synchronization between devices, as well as NOOK’s best-in-class shopping experience and social features.

Says Lynch, “NOOK Tablet, NOOK Color and NOOK Simple Touch™ represent the highest-quality portfolio of reading and entertainment products on the market at the best value. Whether it’s movies, music and apps on-the-go that you crave, or a simple, immersive reading experience, we offer great products and more choices than ever before with our product portfolio, starting at just $99.”

NOOK Color: Now $169

The highly acclaimed NOOK Color, offering access to top video and music services, popular apps, comics and more, is now available at a new low price of just $169, starting today. The first Reader’s Tablet, NOOK Color combines an award-winning reading experience with tablet essentials including apps, Web and email. NOOK Color customers can download Netflix to watch movies and TV shows, access a wide array of books, periodicals and comics, enjoy top music services and thousands of apps, browse the easy-to-use, social and streamlined NOOK Store.

Availability

NOOK Tablet – 8GB version is available for purchase today for $199 at www.nook.com and in Barnes & Noble stores, and will be available in leading retailers including Best Buy, Target and Walmart in the coming weeks. NOOK Color is now available in Barnes & Noble stores and www.nook.com for $169. Experience NOOK Tablet, NOOK Color and NOOK Simple Touch at www.nook.com or at the NOOK Digital Shops™, which feature the full portfolio of NOOK digital devices and FREE NOOK Reading Apps™, or displays in one of Barnes & Noble’s nearly 700 bookstores and other leading retailers. Barnes & Noble offers Always Free NOOK Support in all of its neighborhood bookstores, with more than 40,000 NOOKsellers across the country ready to assist customers with setting up their NOOK devices or choosing their next great read.

About NOOK® from Barnes & Noble

Barnes & Noble's NOOK brand of eReading products makes 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 Barnes & Noble's expansive NOOK Store™ of more than 2.5 million digital titles, and the ability to enjoy content across a wide array of popular devices. NOOK Tablet™ is Barnes & Noble’s fastest, lightest tablet with the best in entertainment from top services and everything you want in a tablet at a great value ($199 for NOOK Tablet – 8GB, and $249 for NOOK Tablet – 16GB). Both NOOK Tablet and the award-winning NOOK Color™ ($169) feature a stunning 7-inch VividView™ Color Touchscreen to read all of the content you love, shop popular apps, connect via email, browse the Web and more. The NOOK Simple Touch™ ($99) is the fastest, easiest to use reader with the world’s best reading screen and the longest battery life. Barnes & Noble offers NOOK owners Always Free NOOK Support in any of its nearly 700 bookstores, as well as free Wi-Fi® connectivity to enjoy the Read In Store™ feature to read NOOK Books™ for free, and the More In Store™ program, which offers free, exclusive content and special promotions. Barnes & Noble was the first company to offer digital lending for a wide selection of books through its LendMe® technology, available through NOOK eReading products. Find NOOK devices in Barnes & Noble stores and online at www.BN.com, as well as at Best Buy, Walmart, Staples, Target, Radio Shack, Books-A-Million, OfficeMax, Fred Meyer, P.C. Richard & Son stores, Fry’s Electronics and Systemax Inc. retailers.

In addition to NOOK devices, Barnes & Noble makes it easy for customers to enjoy any book, anytime, anywhere with its FREE NOOK Reading Apps™, available at www.nook.com/freenookapps. Customers can use Barnes & Noble's free eReading software to access and read books from their personal Barnes & Noble digital library on devices including iPad™, iPhone®, iPod touch®, Android™ smartphones and tablets, PC and Mac®. Lifetime Library™ helps ensure that Barnes & Noble customers will always be able to access their digital libraries on NOOK products and software-enabled devices and BN.com. Barnes & Noble also offers NOOK Study™ (www.nookstudy.com), an innovative study platform and software solution for higher education, NOOK Kids™ (www.nookkids.com), a collection of digital picture and chapter books for children, and NOOK Books en español™ (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ebooksenespanol), the first-ever Spanish language digital bookstore in the United States.

For more information on NOOK devices and eReading software, updates, new NOOK Book releases, Free Friday™ NOOK Books and more, follow us on www.twitter.com/nookBN and www.facebook.com/nookBN.

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS), the world's largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 691 bookstores in 50 states. Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, also operates 641 college bookstores serving over 4.6 million students and faculty members at colleges and universities across the United States. Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through BN.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web's largest e-commerce sites, which also features more than two million titles in its NOOK Bookstore™ (www.bn.com/ebooks). Through Barnes & Noble’s NOOK™ eReading product offering, customers can buy and read digital books and content on the widest range of platforms, including NOOK devices, partner company products, and the most popular mobile and computing devices using free NOOK software.

General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company's corporate website: www.barnesandnobleinc.com.

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