[Article] No Nook Colors for two weeks?

rico2001

Senior Member
Dec 8, 2010
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The Nook Color buy button on bn.com.
(Credit: Barnes & Noble) Looking to make the Nook Color a Valentine's Day gift? Well, your present might not make it in time.

We noticed a small item on the Good E-reader blog that was hard to believe. Without citing a source, the blog claims Barnes & Noble is doing "major inventory" to see how many Nook Colors are in circulation and that the company has, "Quietly depleted all stock in their retail locations and either sent them all to the Nook headquarters in New York, or has not had further shipments fulfilled." The post adds: "This goes the same with other companies whom sell the color e-reader on their behalf."

Weird, right?

Well, we went to check the Best Buy site and sure enough it said the Nook Color was "backordered." Then we went directly to Barnes & Noble's website and saw a little message on the....
Read more: No Nook Colors for two weeks? | Crave - CNET

Yea that is a bit weird and then again, I'd glad the NC is doing so well and I hope some sales numbers get released shortly. I'm dying to see how well the NC is selling.
 

darmeen

Senior Member
Jan 8, 2011
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Found this update to the article interesting
The latest rumor, once again courtesy of Good E-Reader, is that the reason for the temporary unavailability is that Barnes & Noble is in the process of installing an anti-rooting "fix" for the Nook Color because people have been hacking the device to run a custom version of the Android-based firmware.

Read more: No Nook Colors for two weeks? | Crave - CNET

If that is truly the case, it really is too bad that they have to take that slant...but hey, we were early adopters (we got the good ones! :D )
 

rogand

Senior Member
Jan 26, 2011
85
2
Interesting. I can say that when I went to buy mine on Sunday, I originally went to Best Buy, who was advertising them as coming with a free cover (in lieu of a price reduction, which they apparently aren't allowed to offer) When I got there, they had hand-written posters (I checked to BB locations) saying that they would be unavailable from Jan30th to Feb6th. Just 1 weeks vs the reported two, but an intersting co-incidence..

In light of this, the pain of getting mine running after I was somewhat involuntarily updated to 1.1.0 while still at the BN location where I actually got mine (and where they had MANY of them in stock) was probably worth it. Or maybe not. Until I can get gmail/contacts/calender working all the way, the device is not really useful to me. Hopefully, I can sort that out too, eventually.

Will also be interesting to see how/if the anti-rooted-ones get rooted. I'd guess yes.
 

RaVenJ

Senior Member
Jan 24, 2011
493
31
Well, considering the fact that I saw on CNN (the Dell Streak 7 review) that the Samsung Galaxy tablet price had be cut to $299 + a $50 rebate, alienating the rooting community would be suicidal for B&N.. They're selling like mad because people like us want them to mod. I know 3 people locally who are waiting to purchase one when BB gets them back in stock. They'll hand them straight to me to root. If rooting is removed, that's three lost sales right there..
 

pbrauer

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Sep 24, 2010
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Talking to a friend at BBY in merchandising, it is not that it is so much that they don't want to allow rooting, etc., it is that support is getting out of control. They have a totally new technology in the Nook, and they are still working out their user support models for that. When you add in the fact that rooting and flashing is SO easy on the Nook that people who have no experience or knowledge are doing it, then needing help and calling the B&N Help Desk it is becoming a bit of a nightmare.

I would not be surprised to see them come out with very explicit policies around this in terms of what they will and will not support, and if you can return it or not post-root/flash.
 

Marek

Member
Feb 1, 2011
14
1
That's interesting that they claim to be sending them all back because I just bought mine from B&N on Tuesday. I also am in the boat that if I could not root it I would not have bought it.
 

darmeen

Senior Member
Jan 8, 2011
1,007
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Talking to a friend at BBY in merchandising, it is not that it is so much that they don't want to allow rooting, etc., it is that support is getting out of control. They have a totally new technology in the Nook, and they are still working out their user support models for that. When you add in the fact that rooting and flashing is SO easy on the Nook that people who have no experience or knowledge are doing it, then needing help and calling the B&N Help Desk it is becoming a bit of a nightmare.

I would not be surprised to see them come out with very explicit policies around this in terms of what they will and will not support, and if you can return it or not post-root/flash.

They should already have explicit policies regarding rooting and that they will not support it. Pick any smartphone maker and they simply won't support the device if it has been altered beyond manufacturer specs. It could very well be that they are removing the built in ROM (so once you go the root path, you won't be able to go back to stock for support) Its really all speculation until we hear from a B&N rep anyway.
 

AnimaTechnica

Senior Member
Nov 4, 2010
789
63
This is a very good point- customer service is a big part of the cost of selling devices and i am guessing they are getting a lot of calls. Having said that i don't believe they are going to change anything on the hrdware- not really practical to do a hw change on even 100k let alone 500k units units located in many different locations- more likely waiting for software to be ready so when the unit is first turned on the sw automatically loads ota
 

pbrauer

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Sep 24, 2010
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I agree, I don't think users will see changes in the device itself, I think the real changes are going to be in the documentation being more explicit, and in the B&N support people being better prepped on what to ask and look for.
 

Stelv

Senior Member
Jan 12, 2011
800
53
Well better get Clockwork on your devices now if you don't have it. I wonder if people will still be able to roll there devices back to 1.0. The device is virtually un-brickable, so I just think they are worried about the sideloading of books and competing apps for books.
 

pbrauer

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 24, 2010
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hmm....maybe that big writeup of how to put Amazon's Kindle app on the Nook wasn't the best idea?...:rolleyes:
 

darmeen

Senior Member
Jan 8, 2011
1,007
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Well better get Clockwork on your devices now if you don't have it. I wonder if people will still be able to roll there devices back to 1.0. The device is virtually un-brickable, so I just think they are worried about the sideloading of books and competing apps for books.

Well, there is no way that they can OTA change our rollback ROM...They would have to physically have to change the ROM out...hence why it is Read Only Memory

Oh i am sure they are worried about competitors apps running on their gear...they made the NC to sell more books...their profit margin on each unit is incredibly small, but they were okay with that if they could lock someone into buying their ebooks from them (its what they are in business to do)
 

rico2001

Senior Member
Dec 8, 2010
1,599
266
They can never take rooting away, only slow it down. Until they move away from android, to some other system, it will be impossible. You have to take most article out there with a grain of salt. :)
 
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Stelv

Senior Member
Jan 12, 2011
800
53
People should be all good then, with roll back. We will all just have to buy more books from B&N :) I am going to buy one today.... There research team is probably reading this thread right now! lol
 
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