Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
Hmm...
Basically, you're suggesting that people *understand* and accept that Kindles' primary role is as an Amazon storefront and use it as such, whereas Nook customers are more likely to see it as a vehicle for free content...
Interesting thought...
eBooks is such a new business that nobody really understands how consumers behavior breaks out.
If it holds into the larger population (internet communities being self-selecting samples and all-that) it might explain the puzzling assertions that Nook is a money-losing operation despite its size. By all rights, 29% of the US market *should* be a money maker. But if a portion of that installed base is composed of non-buyers, the razor/blade model falls apart. Trouble lies that way.
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I was pretty surprised when I joined the two B&N forums. The most popular thread was the Philly library thread and how to join and discussions of joining other libraries and lending. In talking with people looking at readers and trying to decide, the number one thing they said about nook was, "library access." Not touch, not local store--it was library access over and over. As kindle became library-usable, some of those same conversations appeared on Kindle forums, but NOTHING like the popularity I saw on Nook forums.
When a friend of mine was considering a reader, she wanted a Kindle--but was leaning to the nook because of library books until I mentioned that Kindle had just announced the library lending would be live shortly. She bought the kindle.
COMPLETELY anecdotal evidence, my sales took a pretty big hit when Kindle library lending became available.
I still see the same pattern on the Nook forums that I am on--new threads asking for the best lending groups and that sort of thing. To a lesser degree I see it on Kindle forums although I'd also say that participation in such forums is down by better than half (Some of the newness wearing off, moving on to other things or now that people know the ins and outs, they don't need forums as much.)
So in some ways I think Nook targeted a different kind of reader (intentionally or unintentionally.) The library feature was and still is a big hit. I have another friend who is a Kindle owner. She has been picking up the freebies as they show up in the thousands, but once library lending started, she began reading more on her kindle--instead of checking out physical copies, she gets the Kindle copies. I don't know if she buys less books as a result of the Kindle library feature--she was always a big library user and nothing is likely to change that.
I don't know what it means for the future of Kindles or Nooks--or B&N, but I think from the start Kindle did view the reader as a way to sell content, whereas I'm not sure B&N had a huge plan either way. The fact that they sold less than expected this Christmas doesn't bode particularly well for the company or the e-readers.