Barnes and Noble College Bookstores all over the United States are no longer carrying Nook e-Readers and Samsung branded Nook tablets. The product displays, signage and hardware were removed three weeks ago and college bookstores have also disabled the ability to purchase one online.
Barnes & Noble College operates 748 campus bookstores nationwide for such top academic institutions as Harvard, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, Indiana University, Georgia Tech, and the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. Over 5.1 million students come into the bookstore each semester to purchase textbooks and digital devices to read e-books and take notes.
In 2015 Barnes and Noble spun their educational division into its own company and now operates autonomously from the parent company.  This gives Barnes and Noble Education total freedom to decide what electronic products to stock. Sadly, even the college bookstores have realized that selling Nook e-readers and tablets is not finally viable anymore and not enough students are buying them. Additionally, the average college bookstore does not even have wireless internet access so it’s basically impossible to browse the online bookstore and take the devices out for a test drive.
I am not surprised that the Barnes and Noble College bookstores have thrown in the towel for Nook branded hardware. B&N does not really have a solid digital textbook platform and the company has created brand confusion with their NookStudy, Yuzu and whatever their running now.
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.
