B&N explains their results

[tas03]

Originally Posted by Apache

If he still wants me to buy ebooks form B&N he will need to allow me to download them to my computer. Also they should allow me to use their coupons with ebooks.
Apache

I totally agree with both of these. Membership should give you a discount on ebooks. I also seem to remember that when I first became a member, there was a discount for pbooks bought on line if you were a member.

[Gardenman]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

I hope B&N can keep the Nook going and getting a larger market-share. Ereader diversity has taken a big hit in the West. No more Sony. If Nook goes all we'll have is Kobo and Kindle. Boring, especially with Amazon's little interest in innovation. I suppose I'll only be able to buy Chinese in the end. What a shame.

I do not know about the rest of the USA, but In California you never see any Kobos in a store. Just tablets and Kindles.

[Gardenman]

Originally Posted by Apache

Also they should allow me to use their coupons with ebooks.

[kansaskyle]

Originally Posted by Gardenman

I do not know about the rest of the USA, but In California you never see any Kobos in a store. Just tablets and Kindles.

I checked all the independent book stores in Austin, Texas, and none of them carry Kobo's any more

However, several clerks mentioned they were great devices, but they just didn't see the demand to justify carrying them in the store.

It would have been nice to see them in a store because I ended up getting both an H2O and an Aura One. If I had seen them I would have just got the Aura One.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Wearever

It sounds to me that Riggio wants to sell only paper books, he said it was a mistake to expand into digital devices ( Nooks) although he'll still offer the small $50 Nook,and he'll still sell e-books if they ( customers ) want it. Also he likes the online business with people picking up their paper books from the store. So it's probably as good as it gets from his prospective.

By saying it was a mistake to expand into digital devices I think he just meant that the way they went about it was a mistake. Instead of rebranding a Netronix or Hanlin device like they could have they went whole hog on designing and trying to out innovate others like Amazon & Sony. That's a very expensive thing to do and requires a lot of development and a lot of extra employees.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Gardenman

I do not know about the rest of the USA, but In California you never see any Kobos in a store. Just tablets and Kindles.

You used to, but Borders went under, Family Christian ran into bankruptcy issues and dropped them, BestBuy and Frys both dropped them. Kobo decided that a partnership with indie bookstores was the way to go, but even most of the indie stores that did somewhat well with them have stopped carrying the devices in store. Kobo basically doesn't try to compete in the US market.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

You used to, but Borders went under, Family Christian ran into bankruptcy issues and dropped them, BestBuy and Frys both dropped them. Kobo decided that a partnership with indie bookstores was the way to go, but even most of the indie stores that did somewhat well with them have stopped carrying the devices in store. Kobo basically doesn't try to compete in the US market.

Kobo competes on the cheap by relying on local partners to do the marketing for them. Where the local partner is strong and committed, they do well. Otherwise...

It would help is Rakuten would actually feature them on the sites like Amazon features Kindle but, at least in the US, Kobo gets no help from their parent.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

By saying it was a mistake to expand into digital devices I think he just meant that the way they went about it was a mistake. Instead of rebranding a Netronix or Hanlin device like they could have they went whole hog on designing and trying to out innovate others like Amazon & Sony. That's a very expensive thing to do and requires a lot of development and a lot of extra employees.

That requires a bit more nuance than Riggio has previously demonstrated.

You are right, of course, that the way they went about it was totally bass ackwards, but he more likely means it literally. Like the roman emperor moaning about his lost legions, Riggio is pining for the money lost in inventory mismanagement more than for the lost opportunities to be a "contendah".

Over the last seven years Nook has faced over a dozen decision points and in every one of them they made exactly the wrong choice. A couple of them are only known to have been wrong in hindsight but most of them were questionable at best (and were questioned) at the time. (Like who really thought trying to undercut Amazon on reader price could possibly end well?)

They were simply out of their depth.

[John F]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Kobo competes on the cheap by relying on local partners to do the marketing for them. Where the local partner is strong and committed, they do well. Otherwise...

It would help is Rakuten would actually feature them on the sites like Amazon features Kindle but, at least in the US, Kobo gets no help from their parent.

Following the "Where to buy" on the Kobo U.S. site takes you to a site that isn't very consumer targeted/friendly.

And than following the links for the Kobo stuff, there is a section for Marketing, and the most recent stuff I see is the H20. These is a section for Aura One, but it is empty. I don't see anything for the Aura 2nd ed.

Seems rather confusing to the (U.S.) consumer?

[Pajamaman]

Originally Posted by Gardenman

I do not know about the rest of the USA, but In California you never see any Kobos in a store. Just tablets and Kindles.

Yesh I would like to see more choice. But Amazon has destroyed the competition and only releases 6" screens to support their platform. Great if that's what you want, dull as ditch water if it isn't. Kindles are cool but not at the expense of diversity.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

Yesh I would like to see more choice. But Amazon has destroyed the competition and only releases 6" screens to support their platform. Great if that's what you want, dull as ditch water if it isn't. Kindles are cool but not at the expense of diversity.

Bear in mind that pricing ereaders at near cost wasn't Amazon's idea. Their pricing tracked Sony and they happily pocketed the 40% margin of the K1 and K2.

You can lay the "credit" for near-cost pricing at Nook's feet. They were the ones who reset the baseline. Amazon merely undercut them by $10 and stayed $10 cheaper. It inspired them to start the Special Offers ad business as a sideline. A "sideline" that now generates over a billion a year in revenue. Bezos owes much to Riggio.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

Yesh I would like to see more choice. But Amazon has destroyed the competition and only releases 6" screens to support their platform. Great if that's what you want, dull as ditch water if it isn't. Kindles are cool but not at the expense of diversity.

The Kobo 6" devices are dull, though. The Kindles have 300dpi, different types of buttons, different form factors, different ergonomics, ...

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

Oh where did BN go wrong...

Another big mistake (imo) was abandoning any market outside the US.

I have a Nook Glow that still works yet if i were to need to do a factory reset i couldn't sign in, so in that situation my device is toast.

Thanks B&N, may you as a company rot in hell.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by John F

The Kobo 6" devices are dull, though. The Kindles have 300dpi, different types of buttons, different form factors, different ergonomics, ...

Amazon can afford to experiment, go after premium niches, throw money into Liquavista in case they can make the tech viable.

Kobo is pretty much at the mercy of what eInk can squeeze out of their electrophoretic tech. Which seems to be tapped out. Also, the Kobo brand isn't big enough to support much market segmentation. Doing too many variants risks reducing the economies of scale that make current models profitable.

There's a tendency to forget that manufacturing costs scale inversely with market volume and the mainstream market has not yet shown much interest in alternate or larger reading devices. It's not purely a chicken and egg thing because larger formats do exist but, like plastic backplanes, either the demand or the manufacturing capacity (or both) aren't there. I suspect eInk simply can't make enough variant panels at a price that makes sense for Kobo, even as a premium device.

[Gardenman]

Originally Posted by John F

Following the "Where to buy" on the Kobo U.S. site takes you to a site that isn't very consumer targeted/friendly.

And than following the links for the Kobo stuff, there is a section for Marketing, and the most recent stuff I see is the H20. These is a section for Aura One, but it is empty. I don't see anything for the Aura 2nd ed.

Seems rather confusing to the (U.S.) consumer?

I guess people like me who need to handle and try out something before they buy are out of luck. If they want to buy an epub reader.

Even kindles are hard to find in stores near me. The only place that has them is Best Buy. Even they never have the top of the line kindles.