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"Barnes &amp;amp;amp; Noble is so desperate to sell its flagship NOOK HD+ tablet,\u00A0that it\u2019s now prepared to throw in a NOOK Simple Touch e-reader for free.\r\n\r\nThe company, which is known for its chain of brick-and-mortar bookstores in the United States, is no doubt realizing that its window for success is closing rapidly, as e-reader sales start to dwindle against fully featured tablets such as the iPad and Nexus lines. All the while, Amazon's Kindle range seems to be doing just fine.\r\n\r\nThe NOOK HD+ was supposed to be the company\u2019s knockout punch, offering a full HD, 1920x1280 display and access to multimedia content such as music, films and games. It was an aggressive response to the Kindle Fire HD, in short.\r\n\r\nThe software is reportedly\u00A0a bit buggy, however, with slow load times, even slower user profile switching and awkward scrolling on the Web browser.\u00A0So until it can fix the problem with better software, Barnes &amp;amp;amp; Noble hopes to solve the problem by simply throwing more devices at consumers. Hurrah!\r\n\r\nThe buy one, sort of get one free deal is available across all of Barnes &amp;amp;amp; Noble's physical bookstores, as well as via nook.com as a \u201Cspecial limited time offer\u201D from March 24-30.\r\n\r\nJamie Iannone, President of Digital Products at NOOK Media LLC, said the offer has been created to help consumers \u201Cfully experience all that the expansive NOOK Store of more than 3 million titles has to offer.\u201D\r\n\r\nThat\u2019s hardly compelling though, really. If you buy the NOOK HD+, the only reason to also own a NOOK Simple Touch is because you prefer the e-ink display. No, in all likelihood anyone that takes Barnes &amp;amp;amp; Noble up on this offer will be doing it for one of the following reasons:\r\n\r\n\tYou know someone else that wants an e-reader. Hey, if a friend or family member\u2019s birthday is coming up, it\u2019ll make a perfect present for them, right?\r\n\tIt\u2019s good eBay fodder. The NOOK Simple Touch e-reader is worth $79, which means that it should earn you a significant amount of cash if you just want to sell it on.\r\n\r\nThe NOOK HD+ is in a difficult place, as it doesn\u2019t offer access to the Google Play Store. That\u2019s a huge problem, as it means users have restricted access to some of the best apps that Android has to offer.\r\n\r\nAs a consequence, it can\u2019t compete with other affordable\u00A0Android tablets, such as the Nexus 7 or Nexus 10, nor\u00A0the iPad or iPad mini in regards to functionality.\r\n\r\nWhere it needs to compete is on price. The 16GB model is currently $269, with the 32GB iteration topping that up to $299. That\u2019s exactly the same as the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD, which, while competitive, does nothing altogether unique to sway potential buyers.\r\n\r\nWill throwing in a free low-end e-reader change the NOOK HD+\u2019s fortunes? We'll have to wait and see.\r\n\r\nImage Credit: \u00A0Justin Sullivan/Getty Images"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/03/22/barnes-noble-is-prepared-to-give-you-a-free-e-reader-if-it-means-youll-buy-its-nook-hd-tablet/>