Quote:
Originally Posted by Randal6393
And how does selling Nooks in Best Buy add into the mix?
|
The same way getting Kindles into BB would; by increasing the exposure and availability of the *platform*.
There is more to Nook than the reader hardware, just as there is more to Kindle. What B&N (and Amazon, who did it first) are doing is promoting the platform so as to sell more books. The modern ebook business is a tripod; hardware is but a piece of the puzzle; the ebookstore and the software platform are the other two. To succeed you need to control all three legs. (Which is why Sony and the other hardware-only vendors are looking at serious trouble; they don't control the platform, Adobe does.)
At a minimum, getting Nook into a BB gets Nooks displayed next to the Sonys.
At best, they'll result in hardware sales that'll drive ebook sales for the life of the reader device. This is important because, over time, B&N is going to have to close a lot if not most of their storefronts as the book business moves from 100% print to something like 90% ebook. B&N needs to sell Nook-
the-platform at all costs; whether it means selling reader hardware or "selling" reader apps on iTunes or PCs or cellphones.
If their storefronts lose sales, well, better they lose those sales to Nook and not to Kindle.