B&N's Nook Tablet Lowers Price With 'People' Sub

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Let the tablet price jockeying begin. While Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet came to market late last year at $249 compared to Amazon’s rival Kindle Fire, the bookseller is trying to dip below the attractive $200 price point with a special discount bundle. The Nook Tablet is available now for $199 when consumers purchase a one-year subscription to People magazine for the Nook.    

People’s digital edition for Nook Tablet and Nook Color is among the most popular titles in the B&N Newsstand. The digital magazine has numerous interface and feature enhancements, and is among the most interactive of the magazines currently available on the Nook. The weekly does not come cheap, however. The Nook version runs $9.99 a month, which means the buyer is committing to a bundle cost far above the standard pricing for the Nook Tablet.

While Barnes & Noble’s 7-inch tablet offering entered the tablet fray at about the same time as the Kindle Fire, Amazon’s tablet appears to have received the lion’s share of press attention during the holiday. Amazon claimed that it was the company’s bestselling item since the Fire launched.

The B&N competition is more expensive, but claims to add more memory, fluid performance and better video quality. Still, B&N has made no claims about sales of its tablet. The new plan suggests that the bookseller is looking for ways to get its device below the $200 level -- a price point that appears to have worked well for Amazon.

Although there has been a mixed response to the Fire from many hardware reviewers, most consumers in the online reviews point out that despite the tablet’s limitations, they appreciate what they are getting for the money.

B&N is wheeling and dealing with device bundles throughout its line. The company also announced today that it is offering a $99 Nook Simple Touch e-reader for free when customers purchase a one-year subscription to The New York Times for Nook. A Times subscription will also get shoppers a Nook color for $99 -- a $100 discount. 

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