Women adore the Barnes and Noble Nook Colour – Free @BNBuzz @nookBN e-reader Home Improvement

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested….

Bacon, Essays: Of Studies

In an interview recently with the Style Observer, the socialite column in The Jamaica Observer Beauty Queen Regina Beavers, CVM TV Producer and Personality on the hit morning time show CVM at Sunrise on CVM TV revealed that she totes about a Amazon Kindle in her handbag as stated in the article “Necessary Luxury - Regina Beavers”, published Sunday, May 15, 2011, Style Observer, The Jamaica Observer.

Now before I get harassed about reading the Social Section of the Newspaper, a section that I and I will never appear in, folks I submit to you exhibit A.

This in the form of a previous blog article entitled “The Apple iPad bests the Apple iPhone - CLARO Sales Executives left with mouths agape” in which I discovered that Telecom Provider CLARO Customer Care Executives were “mouth agape” amazed at my suggestion-come-alive, the Apple iPad.

Telecom Providers, too, must “wow” the crowds with good PR (Public Relations) while launching their products with the usual pretty dancing girls and function at the Pegasus…..while I crash the shindig and steal all the food.

The launch of the Interactive Investment Map as visited in person and chronicled by yours truly in my Geezam blog article entitled “JAMPRO, MonaGIS and the Interactive Investment Map – Consider.Evaluate.Act” is one such good example of such a product launch.

So the Social Pages, despite not being technical news, are a quick source of “what a gwaan” as Audia Granston loved to point out between rinses of her customer’s hair in her cosmetology shop, TJ Beauty Salon, in the “Corporate” world.

Tosh and bother!

Not my scene! Beach party or open Air Jerk Pan is my thing.

So what’s so interesting in this article is that Beauty Queen Regina Beavers, just like Carlette DeLeon aka the Pet Tales chick of Television Jamaica fame also has a gadget. Except this is not an Apple iPad, but another device whose design I had suggested; The Amazon Kindle.

I gave away this suggestion in the fall of 2006 while I was at Department of Physics, Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, the University of the West Indies, doing my degree in Electronics and Chemistry along with some other suggestions via an email blast to various emails and Newspapers.

Amazon’s Kindle uses e-ink, which make it akin to reading a book, with it history neatly chronicled in my blog article entitled “Apple iPad and Amazon Kindle - Publishers, Developers and Piracy”. The Amazon Kindle is proving to be both a savior and a curse to the world of Book Publishing.

This as evidence is mounting that suggests that the Amazon Kindle and the Apple iPad predecessor may be an accelerant to e-book piracy as stated in my Geezam blog article entitled ‘Piracy and E-Books in a Tale of Two Cities”!

So it is interesting to see that Beauty Queen Regina Beavers sports an Amazon Kindle, which she uses to “kill time or do research on the go” and “download books and articles”! As a book reader myself, I had suggested the idea for the Amazon Kindle to get more people reading, as the device allowed books to be carried in a convenient form factor.

It only drawback: it did not render books and magazines in colour. Females-centric gadget it was, it still lacked the capability to make the Cosmpolitan, Home and Garden, Target or other Women’s magazines come to life.

Until now…..

Enter the Nook Color, the publishing giant Barnes and Noble’s Colour e-ink 7” e-book reader that made its debut in November 2010AD and has since sold three million (3,000,000) devices as stated in the article “Why is the Nook Color a hit among women?”, by Taylor Hatmaker on May 23, 2011, Tecca.

This e-reader Platform, which technically is an Android Tablet oweing to it recent inclusion of a Google Android Apps Store since April 24^th 2011 as stated in the article “Nook Color gets Flash support, curated app store”, published APRIL 25, 2011 5:30 AM PDT by David Carnoy, CNET News - Crave, had been seeing Women’s magazine sales skyrocket, in some cases outpacing even the Apple iPad.

Women Magazines? Women flocking a Gadget? As if they were genetically modified clones of Carlette DeLeon aka the Pet Tales chick of Television Jamaica fame?

Indeed, some facts are in order to explain this odd phenomenon!

First up to the batting cage!

Women, according to a 2010AD study by Bowker Research, outnumber male readers by a factor of three to one (3 to 1)!

They are also more likely to purchase e-Readers, with males preferring the Apple iPad according the statistics of Forrester Research. I’ll let the numbers do the talking:

1. 56% of tablet owners are male
2. 55% of e-reader owners are female

This as stated in the New York Times article entitled “Female Magazine Fans Flock to Nook Color”, published May 22, 2011 By JEREMY W. PETERS, The New York Times, which proffers the usual boy-likes-gadgets-girls-like-dolls explanation that does indeed explain the gadget stats.

The Apple iPad 2’s stats speak for themselves as stated in my blog article entitled “Apple iPad 2 and PC future - Doomsday in the Battlefield” and my Geezam Blog article entitled “Apple iPad 2 - Dual-Core Easy Skankin'”: it is a Boy’s toy!

Thus the first bit of appeal that the Barnes and Noble Nook Color has it that it runs on Google Android, which is intuitive and easy to use and now commands approximately 33% of the Global smartphone Market as stated in my blog article entitled “Apple + Android beat Nokia + RIM Globally - Regina Beaver's La Dolce Vita”. Not like the Apple iPad; this is the toy for the big boy’s!

Rrrrrrrr Rrrrrr, Home Improvement (TV Series 1991–1999) Style!!!

There is also the excellent marketing and advertising campaign by Barnes and Noble in the paper-edition of the very same magazines.

Coupled with the sub US$299 price, beating the Apple iPads lowest prices of US$499 as bulleted in the article “Five reasons why the Nook Color is more popular with women”, published May 23, 2011, 12:44pm PDT by Rachel King, ZDNet

Thus a certain logical train of thought begins to form in your mind. Unbearable as it is, I must ….write!!

Here goes, summarizing………

Women buy electronics gadgets if:

1. It has something to do with reading
2. Easy to use, preferably intuitive (think Nintendo Wii or Microsoft Kinect)
3. Is little, small and cute and reasonably priced for its size
4. Fits into your purse or handbag (I cannot believe I am writing this, hands please stop typing!!)
5. Comes (oh no! here it comes!! Ahh!!) in various colors other than white.

Including Pink!!

For the love of God, a pink gadget!

I must get up and scream!!! But alas, it is generally true.

Females generally only love electronics gadgets that are cute, fashionable and easy to use. Google Android OS is easy to use on smartphones, so it’s no surprise that it was so readily accepted on the Barnes and Noble Nook Color by females.

Ditto too the Motion Controlled Nintendo Wii, which is set to debut in E3 (Electronics Entertainment Expo) between Tuesday June 7^th 2011AD to Thursday June 9^th 2011AD as stated in my blog article entitled “Nintendo Wii vs Microsoft Kinect - War of the Worlds in Jodine Spark's BattleField”.

This explains why it is flying off the shelves, much as the Asus Eee Pad Transformer is flying of the shelves as my blog article entitled “Asus Transformer vs Apple iPad 2 - X-Men First Class for Ludacris' Numba' One Spot” notes.

Even Searches for “Asus Eee Pad Transformer” are up on my blog, such is the interest in this device.

After all, from a purely anecdotal point of view this is true. Even my habit as a Generator and Telecom Technician of writing about my work and delving into statistics is in itself a strange thing.

Especially on the Geezam Blog!!!

This being as the typical Jamaican male, muchless a Generator and Telecoms Technician, save for a few fellow bloggers on the Geezam blog, are not equolent writers, spelling mistakes and grammar off-key at times.

Even back in my University of Technology days in the Department of Engineering (1997AD to 2000AD) studying for my diploma in Electronics and Telecoms Engineering, a male dominated profession, most males dreaded and hated Communication class.

I remember many of them preferred to dodge Communications Class, which was to empower them with the ability to express themselves in writing.

Which for them as Engineering folk was seen as effeminate and “too hard” as most of them came from mostly vocation schools and not Glenmuir High School, my alma mater!

Only for them to come scurrying for my help to write Physics and Chemistry Labs! So dreaded was their fear of writing or doing research requiring reading! Thus, they had no background in expressing themselves in writing or genuine love for reading long prose.

My University of the West Indies sojourn through the Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences was no more encouraging; males mostly populated the Department of Physics, Computer Sciences and Mathematics with females outnumbering males in the Biology, Biochemistry, Biotechnology and Chemistry faculties.

Again males with a similar aversion to writing Labs for Physics, with males in Chemistry being a bit better off, as they realistically, with the workload put on them by the University Degree Mill, had no choice.

So the image of females liking to read and males liking hands-on gadgetry is a persistent one, with the incredible sales of the Barnes and Noble Nook Color and the magazines being sold via its Google Android Platform strong evidence, if not the Smoking Gun.

Newspaper articles like that of a group of females in a Book Club started by Chess addict Rashida Hanif as stated in the article “Beyond Words: Women Get Together To Keep Reading Habit Alive”, published Sunday May 22, 2011 by Petrina Francis, Assistant Editor, The Jamaica Gleaner help to reinforce this image.

So long as this visage is that of Beauty Queen Regina Beavers of the hit morning time show CVM at Sunrise on CVM TV, I am ok with this stereotype!

No surprise therefore what may be in store for Tuesday May 24^th 2011AD from Barnes and Noble as stated in the “Barnes And Noble Launching Nook Color 3G on May 24th?”, posted May 17, 2011 by Adam Mills, GottaBeMobile: a Verizon 3G Version of the Barnes and Noble Nook Color with more space for Women’s glossy magazines.

And most likely, advertising subsidized like the Amazon Kindle as stated in my blog article entitled “Amazon Kindle and Advertising - AT&T ShopAlerts Shows Me the Money” only FREE to women, once they subscribe to more than five or ten (5 or 10) Magazines.