"Barnes & Noble holiday sales drop on Nook slump"

[drakebelisarius]

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

I already knew that I wasn't going to buy the new Glowlight because the SD card slot is a deal breaker for me (I have over 16 GB of books in my library now), but if the new Glowlight is the same form factor as the Simple Touch and can't use my existing book cover, it's just pathetic. Why did they even bother releasing it?

I have an eight-gig library and a Kindle Paperwhite. It's not that much of a pain, to be honest -- add the stuff you plan to read, remove the stuff you don't, repeat as needed.

[Rbneader]

Originally Posted by drakebelisarius

I have an eight-gig library and a Kindle Paperwhite. It's not that much of a pain, to be honest -- add the stuff you plan to read, remove the stuff you don't, repeat as needed.

Different people have different preferences. I rarely know what I'm going to feel like reading until I sit down with a book, so trying to plan out what I'll read next usually ends up frustrating me when I go to actually read. The lack of an SD slot was a deal breaker on the new Nook for me.

OT, I think B&N's biggest problem is the lack of a relationship with their customers. Amazon spends a relatively high amount of time and effort on customer retention, and B&N has been coasting on their established customer base. I don't know that B&N can turn around at this point, because they've got to change their management focus and develop ways to understand the people who buy from them. That's not easy, and I haven't seen signs that they're really trying.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

My guess? That wanted to remove the card slot so that people would be more tied to BN due to the space partitions. They don't want people buying the device and side loading books, or at least making it more difficult for people.

But what they are going to get is people not buying the device, books, or anything else.

[ProfCrash]

If people were only buying the device, it doesn't matter. They are selling the device at cost or even a loss. They can only do that if people buy their books from BN. The more prolific readers, the people who need/want the SD card slot, are more likely to be people who know where to get books they can sideload on to the Nook and probably did not buy that many books from BN.

So getting rid of the SD card slot probably does not hurt BN because the people who were using it were less likely to buy books from BN. And since they are not making money off the device, who cares if they don't buy the Nook?

Studies show that people who buy the Kindle and Kindle Fire buy a ton more from Amazon. They can afford to sell the devices at cost or a loss because they are going to make, on average, $5,000 more per year from that person. BN cannot say the same thing.

Granted, Amazon sells more stuff then BN but that is how Amazon makes its money off the devices. If BN noticed that people who are using the SD card (and I am not sure if they can track that) are not buying books from BN then why keep it?

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

If people were only buying the device, it doesn't matter. They are selling the device at cost or even a loss. They can only do that if people buy their books from BN. The more prolific readers, the people who need/want the SD card slot, are more likely to be people who know where to get books they can sideload on to the Nook and probably did not buy that many books from BN.

So getting rid of the SD card slot probably does not hurt BN because the people who were using it were less likely to buy books from BN. And since they are not making money off the device, who cares if they don't buy the Nook?

Studies show that people who buy the Kindle and Kindle Fire buy a ton more from Amazon. They can afford to sell the devices at cost or a loss because they are going to make, on average, $5,000 more per year from that person. BN cannot say the same thing.

Granted, Amazon sells more stuff then BN but that is how Amazon makes its money off the devices. If BN noticed that people who are using the SD card (and I am not sure if they can track that) are not buying books from BN then why keep it?

Keeping the SD slot may not save them, and dropping it may not kill them, but I think that trying to make people "more tied to BN" is one of the things that will eventually finish them off, if they don't improve the experience of buying from them.

Every ebook purchase involves a price, convenience, time, quality of experience, security, and privacy tradeoff. I gave buying from B&N a try, it didn't work for me compared to Amazon, who I would happily leave for something better. My personal experience doesn't matter to Amazon or B&N, but there seem to be overwhelmingly more in my camp than the opposite. Some companies can thrive with a tiny market share but it does not look like B&N is one of them.

[ProfCrash]

I agree. I think that BN is sinking and looking for ways to patch holes. The Nook is probably their best bet at remaining relevent and that is failing.

The way it is partitioned screams, to me, we want to force people to buy from us. The only reason I can think of BN doing that is because people were buying Nooks but not buying books from BN. The wonky partition wsa probably meant to encourage people to buy from BN.

The Nook was the only major e-reader with an SD card. The SD Card slot allowed people to get around the partitioning. THat is the only reason I can think of for them getting rid of the SD card.

One of the Nook's selling point was suppose to be that it was EPub so that people could buy from other stores and read on the Nook. I am thinking that BN is wishing that they had come up with something like Amazon's mobi.

For some reason, none of the other bookstores have made e-book shopping as easy as Amazon has. I have checked out BN, Sony, and Kobo and I don't like any of the interfaces. I don't get why this has been so hard for them to figure out but clearly it is a problem. They are not going to make money on the devices, they have to make money on the books. So why are the bookstores so sucky?

I have long said I will give up my Kindle if there is a better experience to be had but I have yet to find one. That baffles me.

[jersysman]

I don't know whether or not you consider Sony to be major, but I had a SD card slot on my T1.

Kobo also supports a micro SD card.

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by drakebelisarius

I have an eight-gig library and a Kindle Paperwhite. It's not that much of a pain, to be honest -- add the stuff you plan to read, remove the stuff you don't, repeat as needed.

How does that work for you when you don't an a connection to the internet?

[ProfCrash]

Does the T3? I didn't know about the Kobo

[Rbneader]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

For some reason, none of the other bookstores have made e-book shopping as easy as Amazon has. I have checked out BN, Sony, and Kobo and I don't like any of the interfaces. I don't get why this has been so hard for them to figure out but clearly it is a problem. They are not going to make money on the devices, they have to make money on the books. So why are the bookstores so sucky?

I have long said I will give up my Kindle if there is a better experience to be had but I have yet to find one. That baffles me.

Me too. The last few times I tried to buy an ebook from B&N's website, it just plain didn't work. The buttons just didn't do anything. I had to buy the book on my Nook and then download it to my PC. I have no idea how it happened, but B&N's infrastructure isn't nearly as reliable as Amazon's, and site navigation isn't easy either.

I really, really want B&N to succeed because I think having spaces for reading and books is very important culturally and educationally, but they're not impressing me as a competent retailer.

[jersysman]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

Does the T3? I didn't know about the Kobo

I don't know about the T3. I gave up on Sony when they didn't give it a frontlight and decided not to sell it in the US.

[Josieb1]

I was looking for a new ereader to replace my Paperwhite. I buy my books from Independant publishers. But I needed the SD card. B&N's SD card removal ruled out the new Glowlight so I purchased a Kobo Aura.

Since then I have bought some books from Kobo.

My point here is that removal of the SD card, and having a partition, means some people (like me) will never buy the new Glow and therefore we don't even look in the book store. If we had a device with an SD card, or without partition, we 'might' have so having a very restricted ereader just limits their market to those who 'know' they'll buy from B&N.

Restricting your market is never a good move.

[Scarpad]

Why did you replace the Paperwhite? Was it a first or second Gen?

[ProfCrash]

Josieb1: I agree with you. I think it was a bad move. But I think BN has made many a bad move.

First and foremost, they never understood that the e-bookstore was the most important thing that they could build. Make that shine, easy to use, and you attract people to your reader.

Second, they never understood that good customer service really mattered. People put up with returning a K2 with fade issues or a PW with pin holes or splotches a bunch of times because they trust that Amazon will take care of the issue. Amazon gets many more strikes then BN because of its reputation.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by Scarpad

Why did you replace the Paperwhite? Was it a first or second Gen?

I never replaced my Paperwhite, it's a first generation, but it wanted another reader.