Nook HD+ Gets Big Price Drop ($179/$199)

From DailyTech: Barnes and Noble introduced the Nook HD+ last year in an effort to thwart the momentum that Amazon was gaining in the relatively low cost tablet arena with the Kindle Fire HD.

The Nook HD+ is backed by relatively stout hardware, bringing with it a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, and a 9" 1920x1280 display. The tablet is available in 16GB and 32GB models, and if that isn't enough storage space, a microSD slot is also included for digital media packrats.

But for all of its pluses, the Nook HD+ has been hamstrung by its reliance on its own “walled garden” to supply a woefully inadequate subset of popular apps. When it comes to app selection, Barnes and Noble simply couldn't compete with the vast app catalogs offered by the iOS App Store, Google Play Store, or even Amazon's App Store.

Barnes and Noble is now trying to fix its app handicap by announcing full support for the Google Play Store through an automatic over-the-air update. That means that Nook HD and Nook HD+ customers will now have access to over 700,000 Android apps/games.

“By adding Google Play to NOOK HD and NOOK HD+, we are offering our customers even more great entertainment on our award-winning tablets,” said William Lynch, CEO of Barnes & Noble.

In addition, the Nook HD+ can now access other Google Services including GMail, YouTube, Google Maps, and the Chrome web browser.

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