Which do you prefer, the Amazon Kindle Fire or B&N Nook Tablet?

The competition in the ereader/tablet space is really heating up and as I watch the live blogs for the Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet I have to admit I was caught up in the moment and was thinking about switching over to it instead of the Amazon Kindle Fire that I have pre-ordered. I have always been a fan of the Nook devices, including the Nook Color and this new one really cranks up the speed, memory, and display quality. However, it is more of an accessory device and not a need for me since I have an iPad 2 and eInk readers.

Image posted on SlashGear.

As you can see on the ZDNet Gadget Reviews blog the specs for the Nook Tablet are very similar to the Amazon Kindle Fire. The differences are in the included storage (8GB vs 16GB + microSD card slot), processor (1 GHz vs 1.2 GHz), RAM (512MB vs 1GB), and the standard EPUB and Office document support in the Nook Tablet. If you just looked at the specs, then you may want to shell out the extra $50 to get the Nook Tablet. However, as we have learned from Apple, mobile is about much more than the specs.

The ecosystem and user experience is what differentiates devices today and Amazon is a major player in the ecosystem for the Kindle Fire. However, Barnes & Noble has partnered with Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora, and others to bring an ecosystem to the Nook Tablet as well. I will rarely use the device for ebook reading since I find a dedicated eInk device with no distractions to offer a far more compelling reading experience.