Quote:
Originally Posted by ZodWallop
When B&N does it, it is bad, but when others do it, it is a rational business decision 
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Really? The cases are equivalent?
B&N is in the US, the biggest ebook market.
Bookeen is in France, much smaller.
B&N's primary business is books and they run a walled garden. Albeit a very leaky one. They get at least some after sale income.
Bookeen is primarily hardware with limited, if any, after sale revenue.
Bookeen in 2010 was selling enough to the US to justify FCC certification, I doubt that is the case today.
B&N had a 25% market share on ebooks and aspired to match Amazon, which was in 200+ markets. Selling internationally would've opened up new markets and besides, they had 30-40% margins on the hardware.
Today the margins are much lower, more like 10-15% after years of near zero.
In 2010 each international sale would've brought B&N maybe $100 vs Bookeen netting maybe $30 today.
Plus, the two cases are *ten* years apart.
In 2010 the two markets were starting up. Sales in France and the UK were comparable, if smaller, to US sales. In the 50-100k range at most. (Kindle launched with 25,000.) Today the market is mature and, for better or worse, walled gardens rule. The market for interoperable epub readers is tiny.
So, Big B&N passed up big margins in an eager market while smaller Bookeen is indifferent about selling low margin into a tight market.
Sorry, I don't see any equivalence.
Different times, different markets.