Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
Half-heartedly isn't the proper term.
They jumped in enthusiastically but they made several "me-too" decisions that came back to haunt them and one thoroughly misguided, over-aggressive move. Sometimes they acted as if they were in the hardware business, others as if they were in the content business, but never synch'ed the two.
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They never got their infrastructure fixed, but I don't think they died in 2010. I wasn't until 2011 that I even bought my first eReader, a Nook Simple Touch. And I don't think it was any one decision or day, I think it was just death by slow non-innovation. I still think the Nook Simple Touch was one of the best designed eReaders ever made. Barnes & Noble had something going there, for awhile. They just kind of dropped the ball. And people lost patience when advertised features -- like syncing between devices -- continued not to work.
As for Microsoft and the lawsuits, I think Microsoft was genuinely worried that B&N had something with their anti-trust allegations. I think that's why they invested into the Nook division.