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Originally Posted by CommonReader
I cannot quite follow the argument that selling a reader of their own would have cost hundreds of millions GBP. An ebook-reader isn't exactly a new Airbus.
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B&N has spent hundreds of millions of dollars developing, marketing and updating the Nook. It's killing their bottom line; net income has been steadily nose-diving for several years, and the costs of the Nook are a big part of that.
They have to hire a team from scratch, make prototypes, test it, find manufacturers, order a run of units, integrate OTA delivery into their website, market it, and manage returns and customer service inquiries.
The development costs of the Airbus 350 are closer to £12 billion, by the way.
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Originally Posted by CommonReader
They could have easily set up a cooperation with an existing manufacturer for a co-branded reader.
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Yes, although that would have had many of the same costs, especially marketing.
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Originally Posted by CommonReader
The new Pocketbook Touch gets excellent reviews, to name just one option. They also have their own ebook shop already. Therefore where are those hundreds of millions coming from?
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From not doing any marketing, from not selling ebooks, from not needing to integrate book delivery to an existing website, and not needing to send 100 physical devices to every Waterstones store, to sit on the shelf until someone buys one.