Last Days of the NOOK?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I think they know they can't abandon ebooks completely, even if they aren't ready to focus on the market.

They also sell their Nooks and ebooks only in the US. Most of their competitors sell internationally. This alone shows they don't really take their ereader/ebook business seriously.

I've never really understood what their problem is. Do they not want to succeed or what? They could have been a major global device- and bookseller like Amazon, had they wanted to.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

They also sell their Nooks and ebooks only in the US. Most of their competitors sell internationally. This alone shows they don't really take their ereader/ebook business seriously.

I've never really understood what their problem is. Do they not want to succeed or what? They could have been a major global device- and bookseller like Amazon, had they wanted to.

I think the issue is that B&N's management saw (and likely still sees) Nook ereaders and ebooks as cannibalizing their B&M business so they have little incentive to expand that end of their business.

I looked at the B&N devices back when they were talking about expanding into the Canadian market which they never did. One acquaintance of mine who lives in the UK was left very unhappy when the warranty hadn't expired on their Nook and B&N dumped their ebook business onto Sainsbury. They were even less happy with Sainsbury who picked up B&N's Nook in March, 2016 and promptly dumped the Nook users onto Kobo when Sainsbury closed their digital entertainment in September, 2016.

[dieterpops]

I'm looking forward to getting a new glowlight 4 plus when they are available again this month. The form factor is really nice and the pricing is competitive for a 7.8 inch device. The buttons are sublime. I've always loved nooks. And yes, I've tried the other brands too.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

They also sell their Nooks and ebooks only in the US. Most of their competitors sell internationally. This alone shows they don't really take their ereader/ebook business seriously.

That's what I was saying. They are treading water on the Nook. They don't promote it, but they don't abandon it completely either.

I've never really understood what their problem is. Do they not want to succeed or what? They could have been a major global device- and bookseller like Amazon, had they wanted to.

Yeah, their management just wasn't up to the task I think. Feels like a major fumble. When I bought the ST with Glowlight, it felt like B&N and Amazon were neck and neck.

[cgsmom]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I think the issue is that B&N's management saw (and likely still sees) Nook ereaders and ebooks as cannibalizing their B&M business so they have little incentive to expand that end of their business.

I agree that is the way they see it, but they are wrong. If a person decides they prefer to read ebooks, they are not going to buy paper books because ebooks are harder to buy from them. We just buy our ebooks somewhere else. You would think that someone in management would be smart enough to figure that out.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

That's what I was saying. They are treading water on the Nook. They don't promote it, but they don't abandon it completely either.

The new management is kind of sending mixed signals. When they released the Glowlight 4 (I think it was the 4) they were talking about being "all in" on the Nooks and that more were coming — wait an see! But when they actually release the new eReaders, good luck finding them in stock. It's like they don't know what they want to do. Since an English outfit runs Barnes & Noble now, I'm surprised that Nooks weren't re-entered into England (probably have an eBook partnership with someone else?).

[Quoth]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliot...ent_Management
Elliot Investment Management owns Waterstones (originally an English bookseller) and Barnes & Noble.
Waterstones don't seem to be interested in ebooks at all and its manager claims Barnes & Noble is autonomous.

Judging by recent collapse on all non-Kindle sales for us, these may be the last days for any ereader not a Kindle.

In May 2011, it was announced that A&NN Capital Fund Management, owned by Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut, had bought the chain for £53.5m[8] and appointed James Daunt as managing director.[9] The company is incorporated in England and Wales as Waterstones Booksellers Ltd, with its registered office at 203–206 Piccadilly, London (which is also the location of its flagship shop).

Waterstones also owns Hodges Figgis (the oldest bookshop in Ireland, founded in 1768),[10] Hatchards (the oldest bookshop in the UK, founded in 1797),[11] and Foyles (a chain of seven bookshops in England).[12]

In April 2018, hedge fund Elliott Management Corporation bought a majority stake in the company.

—Wikipedia

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by rcentros

The new management is kind of sending mixed signals. When they released the Glowlight 4 (I think it was the 4) they were talking about being "all in" on the Nooks and that more were coming — wait an see! But when they actually release the new eReaders, good luck finding them in stock. It's like they don't know what they want to do. Since an English outfit runs Barnes & Noble now, I'm surprised that Nooks weren't re-entered into England (probably have an eBook partnership with someone else?).

It seems like they have never known what they want to do. Perhaps they hoped at first that ebooks were a passing fad and soon everyone would return to paper; when that didn't happen, they had no idea what to do. True, most people do prefer paper and ebooks didn't exactly conquer the world (especially outside the US - very few folks read ebooks here, for example), but neither did they vanish. A certain amount of voracious readers prefer ebooks, some casual readers read them while travelling, there are people who can't read paper books due to advanced age or a disability and so on. So B&N can't just abandon their digital business, but clearly their heart is not in it.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

It seems like they have never known what they want to do. Perhaps they hoped at first that ebooks were a passing fad and soon everyone would return to paper; when that didn't happen, they had no idea what to do. True, most people do prefer paper and ebooks didn't exactly conquer the world (especially outside the US - very few folks read ebooks here, for example), but neither did they vanish. A certain amount of voracious readers prefer ebooks, some casual readers read them while travelling, there are people who can't read paper books due to advanced age or a disability and so on. So B&N can't just abandon their digital business, but clearly their heart is not in it.

I think at the very beginning they were pretty successful. The Nooks had a reputation of being "hackable." And for several years Barnes & Noble featured them. The first thing you saw when you walked into a Barnes & Noble was the Nook booth — front and center. At one point Barnes & Noble even sued Microsoft because Microsoft tried to enforce a royalty payment for using the FAT system (wasn't just the Nook) — eventually that resulted in a settlement of the suit when Microsoft agreed to invest into Nooks and there was even talk of spinning the Nook division off as its own company. By then I think the market was pretty saturated and it didn't go far. Microsoft sold off their interest and Barnes & Noble continued declining until the English outfit bought them.

Nooks were a pretty big deal for a while in the United States at first. You could buy them in Office Depot, Target, Walmart, Best Buy, Staples, Sears and probably a couple other stores I can't think of now (maybe even Fry's and Circuit City, and probably K-Mart). You could also buy Sonys and Kobos at some of these stores.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Waterstones don't seem to be interested in ebooks at all and its manager claims Barnes & Noble is autonomous.

They may be autonomous, but I believe they have the same person running both chains. At least that's what I think I remember reading when Barnes & Noble sold to them.

Originally Posted by Quoth

Judging by recent collapse on all non-Kindle sales for us, these may be the last days for any ereader not a Kindle.

It seems like a lot of development is going on with PocketBook and Kobo (and Tolino). But I don't have any sales figures to go by. I hope more eReaders (especially black and white ones) are still in development.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I think at the very beginning they were pretty successful. The Nooks had a reputation of being "hackable." And for several years Barnes & Noble featured them. The first thing you saw when you walked into a Barnes & Noble was the Nook booth — front and center. At one point Barnes & Noble even sued Microsoft because Microsoft tried to enforce a royalty payment for using the FAT system (wasn't just the Nook) — eventually that resulted in a settlement of the suit when Microsoft agreed to invest into Nooks and there was even talk of spinning the Nook division off as its own company. By then I think the market was pretty saturated and it didn't go far. Microsoft sold off their interest and Barnes & Noble continued declining until the English outfit bought them.

Nooks were a pretty deal for a while in the United States at first. You could buy them in Office Depot, Target, Walmart, Best Buy, Staples, Sears and probably a couple other stores I can't think of now (maybe even Fry's and Circuit City, and probably K-Mart). You could also buy Sonys and Kobos at some of these stores.

Hmm. I wonder what changed, then - perhaps they realized they couldn't compete with Amazon in the US, after all, and so lost their interest in the Nook/ebooks department? Other ereader/ebook businesses seem to focus on markets outside the US, but B&N, being a US company, couldn't do that either. So they just let it go.

[Renate]

I was surprised that Best Buy had some ereader models on the floor when I went there.

[gforgiraffe39935]

Originally Posted by Renate

I was surprised that Best Buy had some ereader models on the floor when I went there.

When you say ereader models, do you mean Best Buy USA and do you mean ereader models including NOOK?

The last time I saw a NOOK in a Best Buy USA was circa 2010.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhites are still sold in local Best Buy USA stores.

I have never seen any Kobo ereaders in Best Buy USA.

Separate thoughts on recent comments in this thread post:

I don't care that NOOK is USA only. Tolino is Germany only, and it's just a brand name over the Kobo hardware. Storytel ereaders are Sweden only (I believe), and they don't even work without a subscription (which is a shocking bit of electronic waste, to me).

I only cared that it seems that they do things that ruin the experience every few months.
I have more than enough eReaders...but if all my NOOKs, Kindles and Kobos were to suddenly stop working and needed replacing, I would just buy a Kindle Paperwhite 11th generation and call it a day. They are so often on sale or available secondhand for reasonable prices in the USA.

Waterproof, 300 ppi, warm light, ability to export annotations, and multi-language dictionaries. Everything else is superfluous.

Kobo has native EPUB compatibility, but I have software to convert my EPUB purchases anyway.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by gforgiraffe39935

..but if all my NOOKs, Kindles and Kobos were to suddenly stop working and needed replacing, I would just buy a Kindle Paperwhite 11th generation and call it a day. They are so often on sale or available secondhand for reasonable prices in the USA.

Waterproof, 300 ppi, warm light, ability to export annotations, and multi-language dictionaries. Everything else is superfluous.

Kobo has native EPUB compatibility, but I have software to convert my EPUB purchases anyway.

Whereas any Kindle Paperwhite would never even be on my list of potential replacements. No buttons, I hate the form factor and the Kindle software, I don't annotate and only read in English and Estonian (so no need for multi-language dictionaries). I don't need waterproof either.
A 7-8'' Kobo would be my first preference.

Everyone has their own preferences and priorities.

[nmyshkin]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Everyone has their own preferences and priorities.

Indeed, from reading through forum posts one might conclude that e-reader users are some of the most opinionated people on the planet

Reports of the demise of B&N have been greatly exaggerated. They're dying...and yet...they're not. Their e-reader production is going to end...and yet...it has not. It's hard to imagine any major corporate bookseller these days which would not be involved in the e-book business and not attempt to "capture" part of that business (and customers) with their own devices/software.

That may not be done well, it may not be done enthusiastically, and the hardware/software might not suit everyone (back to "de gustibus non est disputandum"), but it will probably happen.

So....I still like my NST and NSTG (stifle the groans) and read several hours a day. But if I were just getting into the market now I'd probably get a Meebook M6. Then all doors are open.

I often wonder just how people read actual physical books in the now seemingly distant past. No fonts from Mars, no page-turn buttons (gasp!). Maybe they just didn't. But now you can have it your way (except when you can't). So if more people are reading because the lack of page-turn buttons or fonts galore were turning them away from actual books, that's a win, right?