Barnes and Noble has just announced their 3rd quarter financial results and things like bleak for the Nook line of e-readers and tablets. Customers seem to have tremendous apathy for the booksellers modern portfolio.
The NOOK segment (including digital content, devices and accessories) had revenues of $78 million for the quarter, decreasing 50.6% from a year ago. Device and accessories sales were $37 million for the quarter, a decrease of 62.8% from a year ago, due to lower unit selling volume. Digital content sales were $41 million for the quarter, a decline of 29.3% compared to a year ago, due primarily to the lower device unit sales volume.
Despite the sales decline, NOOK EBITDA losses decreased $32 million, or 52.5%, as compared to a year ago to $29 million. Margins improved on product mix and lower occupancy costs, while expenses declined on continued cost rationalization efforts.
Can Barnes and Noble turn around their e-reader and tablet division? Likely not anytime soon, as the company has no plans to release new tablets this year. The only thing they might do is release a new e-reader, but in order for it to be successful it has to surpass the Kindle Voyage in resolution and overall hardware performance.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.