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Report: Nook Color 2 to launch Nov. 7

Sources have told the Digital Reader Blog that Barnes & Noble will launch the next Nook Color on November 7.

David Carnoy Executive Editor / Reviews
Executive Editor David Carnoy has been a leading member of CNET's Reviews team since 2000. He covers the gamut of gadgets and is a notable reviewer of mobile accessories and portable audio products, including headphones and speakers. He's also an e-reader and e-publishing expert as well as the author of the novels Knife Music, The Big Exit and Lucidity. All the titles are available as Kindle, iBooks, Nook e-books and audiobooks.
Expertise Mobile accessories and portable audio, including headphones, earbuds and speakers Credentials
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David Carnoy
2 min read
Barnes & Noble is due to release a new Nook Color shortly, but can it come close to the Kindle Fire's $199 price? Amazon/Barnes & Noble

With rumors flying that Barnes & Noble will soon be unveiling its next-generation Nook Color, we've been waiting to get word on just when the new device will hit. Well, according to The Digital Reader Blog, that day will be November 7--or so its sources say.

We'll soon see what Barnes & Noble has up its sleeve and whether the new Nook Color will be called the Nook Color 2 or something else altogether. The new tablet will presumably have an upgraded processor and perhaps an upgraded screen and some additional design refinements.

The big question is how much the new tablet will cost. With the Kindle Fire on sale at $199 (it ships November 15), there's some pressure on B&N to come close to matching that price, though Amazon is allegedly losing money on each Fire it sells (our sources suggest the Fire currently costs around $220 to build). With that being the case, Barnes & Noble is more likely to come out with a faster, more powerful Nook Color that costs $249, though we wouldn't be surprised to see it at $299.

At the same time, the company may leave the original the Nook Color on the market and price it at $199.

Potentially, the one big advantage a new Nook Color would have over the Kindle Fire is more memory--or at least expandable memory. The Fire, which taps into Amazon's suite of audio, video, and Web services and features its new Silk Web browser and App Store for Android, has 8GB of internal memory (6GB usable) and no memory expansion slot.