Quote:
Originally Posted by Renaldo
Yeah, probably not. Borders was one of the very first retailers to sell ereaders and ebooks. They were partnered with Sony for years. Before Kindle even existed, you could go to Borders and buy a Sony ereader. Then you could go to Borders and buy books for it (through the Sony store, but that was still way more than any other retailer was doing).
|
Part of the problem was that they simply
partnered with other entities rather than developing their own platforms. I imagine part of what hurt Borders was the fact that they didn't develop their own online bookstore until well after Barnes and Noble (their largest B&M competitor in the States) had established themselves as a viable (and attractive) alternative to Amazon....which is who Borders "partnered" with in order to do online sales.
I'm not saying that's what killed Borders, but I think it was a significant piece of the equation. So was the fact that Borders didn't develop their own proprietary e-reader, a la Amazon and Barnes and Noble (though I disagree that Kobo is not of the same caliber as the Kindle or the Nook -- I like my Kobo
much better than either of those e-readers, and I've played with all of the above).