14 DAY TRIAL // Barnes and Noble could be said to be already selling a tablet, even if it is advertised as an e-reader, but new reports say that a trio of new such things might be on the way.
Either the tablet market is too appealing or the prospect of multi-feature e-readers is too good to pass up because, according to a new rumor, the two will be crossed over by B&N soon.
Barnes & Noble has a certain e-book reader, called Nook Color, which, due to its color screen and the use of Android, has been called a tablet on numerous occasions, limited built-in storage or not.
It turns out that B&N may be working on an actual tablet now, or more of them, unless they are the same breed, or crossbreed, as the one above (not that it will stop people from calling them tablets anyway).
According to this report, not one or two, but three tablets may arrive this year, in Q4, as early as next month (October, 2011).
One of them is an update to the Nook Color, while the other two are called Encore and Acclaim, respectively.
No specifications were given, unfortunately, though it is easy to guess that there might be higher storage and, perhaps, more slate-like features (B&N will go on advertising the items as e-readers). The prices, on the other hand, have been leaked.
The Nook Touch (the one featuring an e-paper, greyscale display) will stick to the current US$139 price (about 103-104 Euro).
The Encore will be the color e-reader aimed at the masses, with a price of $249 (185-186 Euro), which means it will probably not have much in the way of storage.
As for the Acclaim (this is a Codename that B&N hasn't used before), it will cost $349 (260 Euro), which means it will either have significantly more storage space or a larger range of media features, or both.