Quote:
Originally Posted by spec
Do you know the cost of manufacturing $140 new nook? Or do you just assume it's more than $140?
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I have no particular knowledge of the manufacturing costs of any of the eReaders, but some of the reviews I have read of them estimate the cost of the parts and labor that goes into a Nook Color as $200. Thus selling it for $250 probably generates little or no profit for Barnes and Noble for the hardware itself given the added costs of distribution and sales commissions (Best Buy must make some money for selling the Nook and the Nook Color or they would not bother). The money has to be in the books and thus B&N will restrict the reader to B&N books for those books using DRM.
In one of the interviews with a B&N exec that I read online he made a statement saying that B&N wanted to make the device as useful for users as possible. He was then asked if that meant that users could expect a Kindle reader app for the Nook Color and he quickly said no, that would not happen.
As a guess (and it is a guess), I would think that the new Nook will probably make a small profit for B&N, but not enough for them to be selling it as a device alone. It has to be a vehicle for the sale of books and B&N has had a large increase in their profits from eBook sales based on their annual statements.