Nook Out

See, this is why you gotta keep up with current events and why I read the WSJ.

Here is an article by Jefferey A. Tractenberg entitled Barnes & Noble Throws in Towel on Tablets which covers the fact that the Nook is through. Frankly, I see this is a bit of a non-event in the grand scheme of things, but a major event in the world of e-readers.

The bookseller reported Tuesday that losses at its Nook digital business blew out in the fourth quarter, easily wiping out reduced profits generated at its bookstores. As a result Barnes & Noble said it would stop manufacturing its own color tablets, instead going with co-branded devices made by third-party manufacturers.

I also look at Barnes and Noble in much the same way I see the Post Office. Why wasn't the post office the prevailing user and first adopter of email? I remember in 1996 first using email in college. Clunky, orange on black text, an ability to only send to other users in the same community. Why didn't the USPS take that sucker and run with it. Instead of dot com every address should end with dot USPS. For the first few years the only thing we did with the internet was send mail.

I remember when Prodigy (I think that was the name) was introduced it provided local weather and some news as well. It wasn't till email became en vogue that the internet gained legs. Email . . . mail . . . where was the Post Office? They could have been sitting in the fabled cat bird seat had they leveraged that idea sooner.

Why didn't Barnes and Noble jump on the e-publishing band wagon sooner. Why did Amazon, which prior to Kindle was all about shipping goods to people, become the preeminent e-book publisher on the web? Where was Border's? Where was Barnes and Noble? They focused on their core business that's where they were and they weren't nimble enough to change. I see the same thing in my industry. Do we focus on our core? Do we dance with them who brung us? Yep and yep. But we also are expanding into new areas. 50% of our business comes from new or other than core business lines.

It's a miss in my book that Barnes and Noble and Border's aren't still in the book selling business. I imagine kiosks at bookstores that provide a discount on hard cover if you buy the e-book too. I see a store where you can go look at the book in hard cover then buy it on your Nook after you've decided to give it a try. I think about a store where e-publishing takes up as much or more of their core, conventional selling business.

Sadly what do you actually see when you look at Barnes and Noble? You see Cactus.