Buying an eReader Tablet this Holiday Season? Kindle vs. Nook

Ugh, so many eReader tablets to choose from this holiday season, and I'm on a budget. Sorry Apple, AAPL, but the iPad 2 is out of the running. So, that leaves (for this consumer, at least) a choice to be made between Amazon AMZN and Barnes and Noble BKS offerings. Which tablet is right for me, or the person I'm shopping for? There are some questions consumers must ask themselves first, and some research to be conducted. I know we all like to ask questions of others, i.e. the employees at Best Buy BBY but sometimes getting relevant information out of tech-retail store employees is like asking workers at DSW DSW....they usually don't know what they are talking about. So on a tangent, one day I was in DSW shopping for shoes. I had two pairs, one a pair made by Patagonia WWW with Vibram soles, the other a set made by Keen. As I was looking at the two pairs of shoes, I asked an employee what he could tell me about the pair by Patagonia, as I had never owned a set before. "Well, these are Patagonias with Vibram soles," he said. Thanks, buddy, but I'm not blind, I thought to myself. I quickly gave him a death stare so that he would not continue, checked reviews on my Samsung (SSNLF) phone, and purchased both pairs. I guess working at retail stores does not require any knowledge of the products for sale. But, I digress. On to the issue at hand: eReader tablets. The gift idea is for my mother, a technologically un-advanced individual without a Facebook profile that purchased an MP3 player to listen to at the gym and did not take kindly to my suggestion that we can simply put songs on her cell phone. Enough said. Naturally, the questions started flying. What will mom use it for? Will the tablet ever leave her bedside table? Does she just want to read, or does she want music, videos, internet browsing, etc? The answer was simple. The tablet, regardless of what it is, will never leave the house (most likely) because mom gets sick reading in the car and would probably take the tablet somewhere and leave it behind. So first thought, Amazon Kindle Basic. Starting at around $79, this basic reader has a 6" display and has Wi-Fi capabilities, but no touch screen. The tablet weighs six ounces and the re-issue is slightly smaller than the first generation. Perfect? No, because mom has a touch screen phone, and would likely be subject to frustration with the tablet, meaning either the thing will never get used or I'll be receiving phonecalls for the next decade about the useless-ness of my thoughtful gift. So, I have to scratch. Next thought: Amazon Kindle Touch. Same six inch display, Wi-Fi capabilites, the only eReader with text-to-speech, audiobooks and MP3 support, all starting around $99 and going up from there. This has already gained points, because it will be like a giant phone for mom, which thankfully she has learned to master (sort of). Next thought? The Barnes and Noble Nook. Simple Touch, Color, and Tablet forms available, ranging in price from $99 for the Simple Touch to $249 for the full-on tablet. The standard memory size on the Nook is 2GB, while the Kindle tablets start at 4GB. Barnes and Noble boasts more than 2.5 million titles, and the website states that the Kindle only has more than 1 million. All tablets have the same abilities for phone, email, web, live chat, and Twitter. Personally, Netflix (NASDAQ; NFLX) would be a priority, but for mom, it isn't. Anyone remember Borders? I thought so. Keep in mind that as it stands, Barnes and Noble's current market cap is $874.34 million while Amazon sits with a market cap of $80.22 billion. That's right, billion. Suffice to say that we may see the demise of Barnes and Noble, but Amazon won't be going anywhere. Based on my research and what is offered among the tablets, the pick of the litter this year is the Amazon Kindle Touch, both for reading and browsing abilities, and maybe one day, mom will get a Facebook page.