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Monday, February 25, 2013

Tech / Books Looks Like Barnes & Noble Is Getting Out of the Tech Game

Posted by Paul Constant on Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 11:04 AM

Yesterday, The Verge reported that after sluggish sales, Barnes & Noble is looking to put less effort into making e-readers and tablets. I've never had much love for Nook tablets, but the Nook Simple Touch is a pretty great e-ink reader that doesn't read only proprietary e-book formats out of the box, and if Nook gets out of the e-reader game altogether, that takes out the biggest Kindle competitor in the business. This doesn't mean that Nook e-books are over; most people in the industry suspect that Microsoft is going to lean on Nook pretty heavily in the coming years to make up for their lack of an Amazon, iBooks, or Google Play-style e-book market.

As this is all going on, B&N founder Leonard Riggio is looking to buy the brick-and-mortar business from Barnes & Noble, stripping it away from Nook and the chain's college bookstores. This is a gutsy, all-or-nothing move that focuses directly on bookstores as the future of the company.

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They're getting out of the hardware end and focusing on licensing software.

Maybe someone will explain the difference to Constant.

Posted by bigyaz on February 25, 2013 at 4:24 PM

Will in Seattle is beta-testing brick'n'mortar stores for Barnes and Noble, and providing valuable feedback on whether the doors should be "push" or "pull" (as soon as he figures out which it is; should be within ten or fifteen minutes).

Posted by Fnarf

on February 25, 2013 at 3:01 PM

For whatever reason Nook was usually just a bit ahead of Kindle for the last few years but at this point full tablets are cheap enough to negate the need for Kindle/Nook LCD tablets.

Posted by david on February 25, 2013 at 1:46 PM

Give me an ability to have full refunds on the apps/games/electronic stuff I buy on my nook and I'll buy more. I don't want to pay even $1.00 for something that looks interesting and only turns out to be crap.

P.S. let us be able to block certain apps/books/publishers and not see them again in searches unless we want to. I'm tired of wading through games meant for the under-4-year-old crowd and LDS prayerbooks.

Posted by Drew2u on February 25, 2013 at 12:08 PM

...and so endeth the saga of Barnes & Noble.

Posted by madcap on February 25, 2013 at 11:58 AM

Isn't the biggest Kindle competitor Android/iOS devices in general? I own a Kindle, I never use it because I'd rather use my phone or my tablet...

Posted by randoma on February 25, 2013 at 11:34 AM

Paper books are the future!

Said no one ever.

Posted by K on February 25, 2013 at 11:31 AM

Here's hoping this works out and Mr. Riggio gets his hands dirty again running B&N. Since his son left B&N a few years back, things have gone to hell in a handbasket. You can argue there are a lot of factors that have gone into the deteriorating bricks and mortar bookstore business, but I feel strongly that there needs to be someone at the top that gives a damn about books, bookstores and booksellers. Just like Starbucks was trending down when Howard Schultz stepped away. Since he came back, Starbucks is doing better. If the people at the top only care about themselves and not the business as anything but a short-term means to make themselves multi-millionaires, then the business is going to suffer.

Fingers crossed that the Riggios are able to pull this off quickly before there is no hope to salvage B&N.

Posted by Bugnroolet on February 25, 2013 at 11:23 AM