Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Barnes and Noble

It was recently announced that Barnes and Noble will discontinue making the Nook ebook reader. They won't stop selling them, they are just going to have a third party make them. Considering they were going head to head with Apple and Amazon (who have plenty og cash), it's not a surprise. Digital sales are down and gross revenue was as well, but Barnes and Noble turned a profit this past quarter. So what is the future for this company? Since the collapse of Borders, things have been bleak, but maybe they have turned a corner and will survive. I thought for sure they would be gone by now because it looked as if digital content would become the dominant form of sales in book business, but that may have been premature.

In seeking a third party to make the nook Barnes and Noble has realized that they are not a hardware company. They sell books and that is what they should focus on. How about making the Nook application the best in the market? How about selling books cheaper than anyone else? How about making the in store experience better and more inviting? How about looking to ways to reinvent the book buying experience? If it were that easy though, everybody faced with the same problems would fix them, and they usually don't. Maybe Barnes and Noble will realize that they are booksellers and focus on pleasing their book buying customers any way they can. Is Barnes and Noble in the clear? Not yet, but maybe they can turn things around and save something that many people still enjoy doing. Buying and reading books

What do you think?

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