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Barnes and Noble Nook Sales Fall 25% Over the Holidays

By 4 Comments

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Barnes and Noble has just reported that their Nook sales have decreased 25.4% over the last nine weeks.

The Nations largest bookseller has reported that e-book, e-reader and tablet sales amounted to $41.2 million.  Digital content sales were $21.3 million and device and accessory sales were $19.9 million for the holiday period.

I find it strange that year on year the entire Nook brand is suffering so much. This is normally the time when everyone who sells electronics and e-books normally do the best business, but somehow B&N continues to lose money.

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  • Reader

    I returned my Nook Glowlight Plus. There were three ways in which the GlowlightPlus was worse compared to the SimpleTouch.
    1)Worse background color when light wasn’t turned on. Granted, the background color was fine when the light was turned on, but I read with the light turned off to save battery life- and thus e-reader life.
    2)Reduced font choices-it would cost very little to increase font choice. That was a false economy.
    3) Pressure on edges got you out of the book you were reading back to the home screen. That is an inconvenience which can be mitigated by changing the way you hold it, so perhaps this third problem wasn’t that big a deal.

    Instead of being better than the 4 years-old SimpleTouch, the Nook Glowlight Plus was in those three ways WORSE than the SimpleTouch. You don’t completely destroy the old model- you build on it. The Nook SimpleTouch was and is a pretty good e-reader. Why not keep its good features in the new model?

    I suspect that the hotshot engineers who designed this did little consumer testing of the GlowlightPlus. Or better said, management didn’t mandate much consumer testing.

    I was willing to support B&N with the purchase of the Nook Glowlight Plus. I was sorely disappointed. I am not surprised that Nook sales tanked over the holidays. My experience with B&N store personnel is that they have been quite helpful with my questions about the SimpleTouch, so my complaints with B&N are solely with its upper management. B&N is committing suicide.

  • Jonathan Agathokles

    I wonder when B&N is gonna reach that breaking point where they *actually* start adapting and doing what is necessary to survive and thrive. Or, off course, dissolve into oblivion.

  • Pixilicious

    They’ve lost 70% of their market cap in 4 months and, in their market segment, that’s a bad thing to do. Very bad. They’re not comin’ back from this and no e-reader in the world is gonna save them.

  • Jonathan Agathokles

    I also believe that’s the far more likely scenario. They’re like a mastodont stuck in tar pits, slowly sinking further with every movement they make.