Tuesday News: Barnes & Noble
Publishing NewsBarnes & Noble3 Comments
Barnes & – Noble Weighs Its Nook Losses So right after I scheduled the Monday news, a couple of articles were released that tell a story of Barnes & Noble’s attempt to survive. The Wall Street Journal reports that B&N s likely to cease production of the Nook and instead work to license B&N’s brand name onto existing products through partnerships with Microsoft and Samsung. Weirdly, B&N said that they were going to concentrate more on content. B&N puts out very little content of its own; instead is merely a middleman to traffic the content produced by others to consumers. It may mean that B&N will try to acquire and publish fiction and non fiction much like Amazon’s publishing arms or it may mean that B&N will try to sell white label content suited to its customer base. B&N towels anyone? NYTimes
Barnes Chairman Mulls Bookstore Buyout – Len Riggio owns 30% of the B&N stock and is said to be interested in buying back the retail portion of the business and taking it private. B&N says that less than 20 of the 689 retail stores are currently unprofitable. B&N initially said that it has plans to close 1/3 of its retail locations over the next ten years, presumably by not renewing lapsing leases. The separation of the nook division which was supposed to save B&N from the retail division seems inevitable. WSJ.com
Nokia 105 and 301 candybar phones announced at MWC, offer simplicity on the cheap – Apple is losing ground in the high end market to Samsung and other manufacturers and it isn’t even trying to compete against cellphone manufacturer Nokia who has introduced the Nokia 105 for $20 or up to $85. The phone has a month long battery life, FM radio and a flashlight. The keyboard screen is splashproof and there is a 3.2 megapixel camera. Engadget
Spiderman’s Silk Really Could Stop a Train – Three physics students in the UK calculate that an orb weaver’s web, which is 10 times stronger than Kevlar, could stop a four car subway train if anchored appropriately. I view this as just another reason to be terrified of spiders. Long live arachnophobia. LiveScience
Cease production?! That’s a frightening thought as a die-hard B&N user, both for devices and purchasing. I wonder what that might mean for us B&N users, and issues of capability if I had to move to another device down the road.
After yet another conversation with B&N yesterday about download error 2080 and the need to re-verify my credit card information–for the third time this year–because of problems with their computers–I’m officially done. It’s almost as if planned obsolescence is at the head of their agenda, in which case, well played, B&N.
So bummed about this. I absolutely LOVE my nook color. Love it. I can change the color of the text, fonts, and it has page numbers. Argh. While I’ve never met a kindle-owner who didn’t love their kindle, I’m sad the nook isn’t/didn’t catch on.