Quote:
Originally Posted by spec2
As to #1, it's unclear to me me what book pricing will be once the Nook ships and the eBook store is modified to support it. From the looks of the launch BN rushed the Nook out to position it for the holidays, but they don't have all the fine details ready yet, hence the late Nov ship date.
As to #3 I don't really see the comparison between Blockbuster and BN other than they are both B&M stores. Movies/TV on hard media is on a slow death rattle. That is clear. But Bookstores still have their purpose. There are plenty of titles I'd never buy in eFormat. In fact the only eBooks I buy are the one's I'd normally read and giveaway. Books I intend to keep I still buy in hardback. I don't think the hardback book will ever go away completely. Also Bookstores are places people like to hangout in. I never wanted to chill in a Blockbuster.
As for the Amazon's response. Short term the nook is not going to damage the Kindle, but long term Amazon better beef up its R&D dept. or license Kindle production to a real hardware maker or people will go elsewhere. The Kindle was good enough when it was the only game in town. But that is changing quickly and the Kindle must too.
Truly the real threat for the Kindle is going to be if Apple enters the market in 2010. Only Apple can make reading cool again to the masses.
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On your response to my 3rd point, I agree that paper books aren't going away; however, the overall volumes would drop off if ebooks takeoff with the masses. B&N's business was formerly the low cost leader on books when they beat out the mom & pops. now amazon is cheaper. B&N was still good for people who wanted to browse or wanted convenience but now u can browse ebooks and they r more convenient. thus, i see B&N as having far too much bricks and mortar capacity for the market in the long term. they r barely profitable as it is. internet distribution decimated blockbuster's business. the same will happen to B&N.