Archive for the ‘Barnes and Noble’ Category
Nook Simple Touch refurb for $69.99 no comments
Outlet deals site Ice Monkey is currently selling refurbished Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch ereaders for $69.99 with free shipping. This deal will last as long as the available stock does and the stock meter is already getting low so if you want one you should jump on it. This is about $10 less than these are selling for elsewhere at the moment.
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A possible buyer for B&N’s college stores no comments
The Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch is reporting that a Barnes & Noble shareholder, G Asset Management, has offered to buy 51% of the bookseller’s college bookstore chain for $460 million. B&N operates 641 college bookstore
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B&N offering $20 discount on Nook Color and Nook ST no comments
Barnes & Noble is offering a $20 discount on the Nook Color or the Nook Simple Touch ereaders when the purchase is made with a MasterCard. The offer applies to both in-store purchases and to purchases made online at barnesandnoble.com until March 18, 2012.
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New software for Nook Simple Touch no comments
There is a new software update for the Nook Simple Touch. The only explanation B&N gives for v1.1.2 is that it provides minor system enhancements. The update can be downloaded and manually installed or it will be delivered over the Wi-Fi connection.
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Nook gets Dark Horse graphic novels no comments
Beginning today, graphic novels from Dark Horse are available at the Nook Comics shop. 
Until now the digital versions of Dark Horse comics have been limited to iOS devices; and no, they are not yet available at the Kindle Store.
"Making our content available on new platforms outside of the Apple iOS is an incredibly exciting proposition," said Matt Parkinson, Dark Horse Senior Director of Marketing. "As we move into new areas and new devices, we look forward to the opportunity to find new readers. I can’t think of a better partner than Barnes & Noble the leading retailer of digital content and media and the folks behind the number one chain of bookstores in the country."
I can’t help but wonder if Dark Horse expanded its digital offerings to the Nook platform first because of the way in which B&N reacted when Amazon signed an exclusivity deal with DC Comics several months ago, following which the paper versions of DC’s graphic novels found themselves no longer welcome on B&N’s store shelves.
Over 100 Dark Horse titles, including Mass Effect, Hellboy, Star Wars, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Serenity, Sin City and more are now available at the Nook Comics store.
Update: Dark Horse graphic novels are also now available at Kobo for the Kobo Vox.
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New B&N promotion for Hunger Games fans no comments
Barnes & Noble will be running a new promotion built around the opening of the film adaptation of The Hunger Games. On March 10 the first customers to buy a Nook Tablet, Nook Color or Nook Simple Touch at select stores in major cities across the US will receive two complimentary tickets to advance invitation only screenings of the new movie to be held in Los Angeles and New York on March 19 and on March 21 in a number of other cities. The offer will be good while supplies last.
B&N will also be hosting Hunger Games parties at participating stores on March 21, and all customers who buy a Nook between March 10 and March 20 will receive VIP tickets to this event. There will also be in-store appearances by members of the cast of The Hunger Games at stores in NYC and Los Angeles.
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B&N reports Q3 2012 results; Launches new tablet model no comments
Barnes & Noble today reported its financial results for the third quarter of fiscal 2012, which ended Jan 28. In a continuation of recent trends, B&N’s online business continues to grow fast (32% over last year during the 3rd qtr), while sales at the physical stores only grew 2%. Earnings for the quarter would have been almost flat except for the impact of deferred income from textbook rentals. Barnes & Noble College is seeing increased adoption of textbook rentals and this revenue is deferred over the life of the rental term rather than being recorded when the sale is initiated. The sales of paper books in stores increased more than 4% over last year — I suspect this may be attributable to the demise of Borders.
B&N also announced the launch of a new 8GB version of the Nook Tablet that is priced at $199 and includes all of the features of the 16GB model except for the amount of built-in memory. 5GB of the new Tablet’s 8GB memory can be used for content, but 1GB of this is reserved for Nook Store content. B&N now has a Tablet that price matches the Kindle Fire. The Nook Color’s price has been reduced to $169.
There is also a new software update for the Nook Tablet. Version 1.4.2 appears to be a minor bug-squashing update that “provides minor system enhancements.”
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B&N will not sell books published by Amazon no comments
Don’t look for any fence mending to take place anytime soon between the two largest competitors in the digital reading space in the US. 
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Barnes & Noble will no longer sell any books published by Amazon’s publishing imprints in its stores. B&N is irate about Amazon’s growing list of exclusive ebook publishing deals.
To be sure there are a few books that are available in digital format from B&N but not from Amazon, but these are few and far between and the number of exclusives at the Kindle Store vastly outweighs those available at the Nook Store.
Meanwhile, Amazon’s stock price is taking a hit today after the company reported lower than expected revenue for the last quarter, although the company’s profit was higher than expected.
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B&N offers discounts on Nook with NYT & People subs no comments
Barnes & Noble is currently offering a free Nook Simple Touch ereader or a Nook Color for $99 (regular price $199) with the purchase of a one-year Nook subscription to the New York Times. The Nook version of the NYT costs $19.99 per month and includes access to The Times’ website.
With the purchase of a one-year Nook subscription to People magazine comes a $50 discount on a Nook Tablet, bringing the price down to $199. People is a weekly publication and the digital subscription price is $9.99 per month. The digital version does have some exclusive content not included in the print version of the magazine.
Both offers start today and run through Mar 9, 2012. The subscriptions can be initiated online at the links above and the Nook will then either be shipped out or can be picked up at a local store.
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B&N and Kobo holiday sales results; Nook may be spun off & go international no comments
eReaders and ebooks were hot sellers this holiday season, and not just at Amazon. Barnes & Noble reports that sales of its Nook devices were up by 70% over last year, while digital content sales were up by 113%. B&N says that it sold more Nook Tablets than expected but that sales of the Nook Simple Touch were below projections.
B&N’s digital business may be surging but its brick and mortar stores are seeing little growth, even now that with Borders out of the picture there is less competition. B&N is forecasting a 1% increase in comparative store sales for 2012.
Barnes & Noble says that it is exploring options for separating its Nook business and expanding it abroad.
"We see substantial value in what we’ve built with our NOOK business in only two years, and we believe it’s the right time to investigate our options to unlock that value," said William Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble. "In NOOK, we’ve established one of the world’s best retail platforms for the sale of digital copyright content. We have a large and growing installed base of millions of satisfied customers buying digital content from us, and we have a NOOK business that’s growing rapidly year-over-year and should be approximately $1.5 billion in comparable sales this fiscal year. Between continued projected growth in the U.S., and the opportunity for NOOK internationally in the next 12 months, we expect the business to continue to scale rapidly for the foreseeable future."
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Kobo also reports a record breaking holiday season with a tenfold increase in new customers and a near doubling of total registered users as compared to the pre-holiday period. Kobo’s ereaders and ebooks are available internationally and some of its strongest gains were in Europe and parts of Asia.
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An internationally available set of Nook ereaders is not, of course, good news for either Kobo or Sony. The other smaller ereader manufacturers that have failed to compete successfully in the North American market will also not be overjoyed at this news.
