Barnes & Noble's Next Nook Tablet to be Based on Windows 8?

[exfileme]

The next Nook tablet will probably be powered by Windows 8 thanks to a hefty investment by Microsoft.

Barnes & Noble's Next Nook Tablet to be Based on Windows 8? : Read more

 

[CaedenV]

$200 for a device with a ~$50 OS on it? I am very curious to see what kind of hardware they fit into such a small $$ footprint...

 

[math1337]

It will probably be a completely custom job with windows 8 as a base. That probably means that there will not be the level of rooting and community support that the android version had. I'll take the kindle Fire HD.

 

[chuckydb]

[citation][nom]math1337[/nom]It will probably be a completely custom job with windows 8 as a base. That probably means that there will not be the level of rooting and community support that the android version had. I'll take the kindle Fire HD.[/citation]
Kndle fire is a joke of an Android tablet.
Get something like a nexus 7.

 

[ojas]

Hmmm so the Droid M gets an Intel SoC in the UK while the Nook (and more than 6 other devices) gets Win 8, and win 8 hasn't even had a consumer launch yet.

Where did i read that "wintel will fail" article again?

 

[jhansonxi]

The OS choice and "investment" was more driven by a M$ patent lawsuit settlement with B&N than technology.

 

[Guest]

Unlike a screen upgrade and a video store, the Windows 8 option has so far been entirely based on speculation by market observers, with nothing sourced back to anyone from B&N.

Indeed, if the new B&N tablet has the horsepower to run Windows8 for ARM, it is also quite possible (1) to sell it with the B&N overlaid Android system and the Windows8 for ARM as an optional upgrade and (2) for the movement to be going the opposite direction, with the new video store being, in effect, a way to export XBox Live media to Android.

 

[Old_Fogie_Late_Bloomer]

[citation][nom]math1337[/nom]It will probably be a completely custom job with windows 8 as a base. That probably means that there will not be the level of rooting and community support that the android version had. I'll take the kindle Fire HD.[/citation]
I very much doubt, if this rumor is true, that Microsoft will allow the Nook to be heavily customized at all. In fact, I see this as an opportunity to get Windows 8 out in front of the kind of people who aren't shopping for a computer. Microsoft doesn't care whether you're using a Surface or a Nook Tablet or whatever, they just want you to own a device with the Windows App Store on it.

 

[CaedenV]

[citation][nom]Old_Fogie_Late_Bloomer[/nom]I very much doubt, if this rumor is true, that Microsoft will allow the Nook to be heavily customized at all. In fact, I see this as an opportunity to get Windows 8 out in front of the kind of people who aren't shopping for a computer. Microsoft doesn't care whether you're using a Surface or a Nook Tablet or whatever, they just want you to own a device with the Windows App Store on it.[/citation]
Bingo. Perhaps MS is giving RT away to device manufacturers free in order to populate the store?

 

[ethanolson]

It' Windows RT, not Windows 8... though the only difference is that there's no desktop or traditional Control Panel in Windows RT. That's a huge difference because I spend about 95% of my time on the desktop. Yes, I'm running Windows 8 Enterprise (RTM).

 

[Old_Fogie_Late_Bloomer]

[citation][nom]caedenv[/nom]Bingo. Perhaps MS is giving RT away to device manufacturers free in order to populate the store?[/citation]
Actually, I picture the conversation going more like this, at least in the case of Barnes and Noble: "You can pay us $15 in licensing fees on every device you sell, and get little or no support from Google while you're working with Android, or you could pay us a discounted $40 per device and get plenty of engineering support from us for your extra $25. Oh, and we'll invest in your higher-education subsidiary."

But you could be right; Microsoft might have decided to offer the OS for free. Of course, if it does that, it will probably have to do that for everyone, not just Barnes and Noble, or there could be legal hell to pay.

The more I think about this, the more intrigued I get. I could see this working out really well for everyone, including app developers, if everything comes together. The Nook will totally be worth it to college kids if they can save money by renting e-books rather than buying physical books that they'll never use again after one or two semesters (I would have loved for this to have been an option for me). And you know they'll be poking around the app store.

Then there's the market of people who read for fun, who don't spend that much time in front of a computer...now they can sneak in a round or two of Angry Birds between chapters. And then there's developers, who will know that there's going to be a bunch of 7" (probably), 1366x768 tablets out there, and can use that as a baseline for designing their apps.

 

[ojas]

[citation][nom]ethanolson[/nom]It' Windows RT, not Windows 8... though the only difference is that there's no desktop or traditional Control Panel in Windows RT. That's a huge difference because I spend about 95% of my time on the desktop. Yes, I'm running Windows 8 Enterprise (RTM).[/citation]
Trust me, you won't be doing that on the Nook

 

[kennyrosenyc]

This is utter nonsense. The deal with Microsoft had to do with the textbook arm of B&N. There's no info to indicate this assertion. I know this because I work for B&N. In fact they've already said that going forward they're not focusing on hardware at all.