"This isn't anything like a formal study," technology expert Marco Arment wrote in his "Informal e-reader library comparison," "so take this with a grain of salt." But in his opinion, the Kindle and Nook have roughly comparable book stores, with Amazon.com's advantage not nearly as great as expected on the titles he searched for.
That's all well and good if you bought your Kindle or Nook to read books on. But the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet (and last year's Nook Color) are color multitouch tablets, more like the iPad than like the original black-and-white Kindle. Both of them can run games and apps, and both have numerous titles in their app stores.
So, the question is: Which app store is better?
The method used to find out
Bigger doesn't always mean better. The Android Market, for instance, has thousands more free apps than the iPhone's App Store, but that doesn't mean that its selection is strictly better. Since it costs only $25 to put free apps on the Market, compared to $99 per year to put any apps on the App Store, a lot of the free "apps" on the Market are tests, soundboards, and hobbyist projects.
So this isn't about comparing the size of each market to the other. (If it were, Amazon's "Appstore" would win handily.) Rather, we're going to search each store's catalog for a handful of apps, mostly taken from the Android Market's top free and paid lists.
How the Nook fared
First, there are no official Facebook or Twitter apps for the Nook. Instead, you'll have to rely on Seesmic, which is only rated at three out of five stars. Pandora's preinstalled, on the other hand, as is Netflix (on the Nook Tablet; the Nook Color can't run it).
Quickoffice Pro is available for the Nook, but there's no free version, and no Photoshop either. And three versions of Angry Birds are available, but there's no Cut the Rope or Fruit Ninja (although there are dubious-looking clones).
How the Kindle performed
There's an official Twitter app for the Kindle Fire, but no official Facebook app (you're stuck with Seesmic again). There's an official Pandora app as well as a Netflix one, and it's worth noting that Amazon has its own movie and MP3 stores as well.
Quickoffice Pro and Photoshop are both there, as are Cut the Rope, Fruit Ninja, and several versions of Angry Birds ... including free ones. Plus, Angry Birds Rio was an Amazon Appstore exclusive before coming to other markets.
The Upshot
This study was not scientific, and your needs and your mileage may vary. But it looks like the work Amazon did to build up its Appstore paid off; the Kindle Fire has the lead both in quality as well as quantity.
On the other hand, the Nook Color has long been a favorite of hobbyists for its ability to be turned into a full-fledged Honeycomb Android tablet, including access to the Android Market. Depending on your comfort level for the procedures involved in doing so, this might give the Nook the edge for you.
Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.
the waltons weta weta rudolph the red nosed reindeer rudolph the red nosed reindeer adam carolla desean jackson
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.