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The ToyBox

Ricardo Bilton & Gloria Sin

Wi-Fi only Nook listed for $149.99 at Best Buy; 3G version for $199 (updated)

By | June 21, 2010, 3:37am PDT

Summary: The pricing on e-book readers is getting a whole lot more competitive, with the $149.99 price tag attached to a new Wi-Fi only version of Barnes & Noble’s Nook.

The pricing on e-book readers is getting a whole lot more competitive, with the $149.99 price tag attached to a new Wi-Fi only version of Barnes & Noble’s Nook.

Spotted on Best Buy’s online store, the $149.99 version can only connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi (no 3G like the $259.99 version). It’s only up for pre-order now, but some websites are pointing towards a release this Wednesday, June 23. This light version of the Nook will certainly go head-to-head with the Kobo, although the Kobo lacks both 3G and Wi-Fi.

A $150 price point for an e-reader is something that finally entices me to consider picking up one myself. Sure, it’s only Wi-Fi access. But if you can manage to accomplish what you need when near a Wi-Fi hotspot, then that $100 savings can be put to a lot of other stuff like e-books, music or even other gadgets.

UPDATE: Barnes & Noble has issued a press release, officially announcing not just the $149.99 Nook Wi-Fi, but also a price drop on the original version to $199 with the name “Nook 3G.”

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Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

Disclosure

Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

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The wars have started. Amazon's 3G Kindle now at $189.
Blackbeagle2 21st Jun 2010
Attack/counterattack.
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3G on these devices is overrated anyway
Michael Kelly 21st Jun 2010
Considering that more and more people have 3G or better phones with tethering capabilities, the need for every device you have to also have 3G has diminished and will eventually disappear.
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Agreed. Add to that...
ericesque 21st Jun 2010
@Michael Kelly
the fact that Starbucks and McDonalds offer free wifi for those one the go, the car is about the only place that you can't grab content over the air-- and that's probably for the best anyway :P
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I was interested in kobo until this...
ericesque 21st Jun 2010
3G schmeeG. Heck wifi is hardly a feature draw for me. I want an e-reader and $150 seems reasonable at this stage of the game. The nook has been added to my Christmas list!
Let the wars begin! Great for the consumer!!
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Attack/counterattack.

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