MS aims to gobble more of Nook Media, kill off Nook Tablets

[Bateluer]

http://www.dailytech.com/Microsoft+...r+1B+USD+Nook+Tablets+to+Die/article31516.htm

Move would reposition Nook media as solely an e-book seller

While the Nook HD+ is a well-known budget Android tablet, the days of the Nook may be numbered. According to a report by TechCrunch, internal documents indicate that Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is offering Barnes & Noble, Inc. (BKS) a $1B USD buyout to acquire some of the assets of Nook Media LLC, which Microsoft will then look to reposition as the go-to digital college textbook source across its platforms.

I'm okay with B&N killing off their hardware line up as there's simply better options out there. And with their stellar Nook e-reader app, customers have access to their nook content on their phones and tablets easily.

Debate this as you wish, but the bottom line is that B&N cannot, repeat, cannot shutter their ebook business. If they do, they will be in full bankruptcy in 2 years, tops.

 

[poofyhairguy]

So long Nook, we hardly knew yee!

 

[bearxor]

B&N is essentially on the verge of being bought out by an investment group and then sold off in slices.

MS is just looking to launch its own eBook store and this is the quickest, easiest way to do it.

 

[Ravynmagi]

To me it feels like B&N can't really compete against Amazon in content. They are so far behind. And I know I don't feel comfortable buying eBooks from B&N because I don't think they'll be around long term. And I'd hate for all my digital content to go poof when B&N goes poof.

So I guess I think it's good if Microsoft buys the Nook business with ebooks and tablets. Perhaps the prices can become more competitive with Amazon and get more into the self published books as well.

I can't imagine how B&N survives though without Nook Media. What does it have left, just the physical book and DVD business? That's a business that's shrinking fast. So yeah, seems like B&N is pretty much committing suicide if it's sells it's Nook business. Though it probably doesn't have a choice.

 

[Crono]

Microsoft might be trying to go to college.

Literally. They get B&N's college presence (bookstores) and ebook division... would be a great way to sell Surfaces and maybe textbooks.

Plus they could integrate Nook even better in Windows tablets and WP, which already has a pretty good Nook app.

 

[Bateluer]

To me it feels like B&N can't really compete against Amazon in content. They are so far behind. And I know I don't feel comfortable buying eBooks from B&N because I don't think they'll be around long term. And I'd hate for all my digital content to go poof when B&N goes poof.

See, thats the thing. B&N isn't behind Amazon in ebook content. Giving the benefit of the doubt, they're quite equal. In fact, its still ahead of Amazon in e-zine content. But Amazon has significantly more brute force marketing and advertising. Hardware-wise too, the nooks are on par with the Kindles in every respect, sometimes beating Amazon to market with features too, like the LED e-ink readers and low cost tablets like the Nook Color.

I have a good deal of nook content though, and reading articles like this makes me wary of buying any more. Not just that, but for the average consumer seeing a bookstore's ebook store go belly up and others lose their book collections will stunt the growth of digital books. Course, publishers usually are trying to stunt and slow that market whenever possible.

I can't imagine how B&N survives though without Nook Media. What does it have left, just the physical book and DVD business? That's a business that's shrinking fast. So yeah, seems like B&N is pretty much committing suicide if it's sells it's Nook business. Though it probably doesn't have a choice.

Exactly. They cannot afford to spin off Nook Media, thats the one future thinking aspect they have. As I said in my OP, if they let it go, they're Borders. They'll be in bankruptcy soon after.

Do they advertise the nooks on television or anywhere? I don't have a TV.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

nook tablets were already dying, amazon is killing them and everyone knows it which has put them in a death spiral. i dont see ms doing much better with that business, everyone is sick of being jacked by them

 

[Ravynmagi]

See, thats the thing. B&N isn't behind Amazon in ebook content. Giving the benefit of the doubt, they're quite equal. In fact, its still ahead of Amazon in e-zine content. But Amazon has significantly more brute force marketing and advertising. Hardware-wise too, the nooks are on par with the Kindles in every respect, sometimes beating Amazon to market with features too, like the LED e-ink readers and low cost tablets like the Nook Color.

I have a good deal of nook content though, and reading articles like this makes me wary of buying any more. Not just that, but for the average consumer seeing a bookstore's ebook store go belly up and others lose their book collections will stunt the growth of digital books. Course, publishers usually are trying to stunt and slow that market whenever possible.

I'd say about 70% of the ebooks I buy from Amazon are self published books that are only available on Amazon. This is something B&N missed the wagon on. I believe they are trying to get into this now, thing they have been for a while. I just don't see much of it in the Nook store. Amazon also did a great job with the Prime memberships and letting subscribers check out one free book a month. Kindle's Lending Library is much larger than most public libraries and much easier to use.

The Nooks are better hardware, but the Amazon platform provided a much more complete experience out of the box with access to the ebooks, self published books, a much larger app store, a huge video and music library. Nook competing against all of that with more magazines and children's book just didn't balance it out. B&N just doesn't have the content to compete with Amazon.

Now that the Nooks have Google apps out of the box, access it's meager content in addition to Google's much larger content of apps, videos, and music, now makes the Nooks much better. I wonder why B&N didn't think to do this earlier? Use the Nook's UI to push B&N content, books, but open the door for users to find additional content, and hopefully that is a win-win for both B&N and the customers that support their platform.

 

[Zaap]

I wonder why B&N didn't think to do this earlier?

In terms of the Nook hardware, B&N has been greedy and stupid from the start. This was the question everyone was asking when they started locking down the devices after the Nook Color.

Then of course it was just "Oh, only tech-geeks care about running anything other than the lame B&N software on the Nooks, and those are just a fraction of the market." Yeah, but it seems that regular consumers also didn't much care for an obviously limited device at near the same price as other devices that weren't as limited.

 

[Bateluer]

I'd say about 70% of the ebooks I buy from Amazon are self published books that are only available on Amazon. This is something B&N missed the wagon on. I believe they are trying to get into this now, thing they have been for a while.

Pretty much all the self published books are 50s Shades and Twilight clones.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Pretty much all the self published books are 50s Shades and Twilight clones.

I've read a lot of them and none of the ones I read are like those two books. I've found a lot of variety in the self published books.

However if you've read 50 Shades or Twilight, then Amazon is probably recommending books similar to those to you.

 

[BladeVenom]

nook tablets were already dying, amazon is killing them and everyone knows it which has put them in a death spiral. i dont see ms doing much better with that business, everyone is sick of being jacked by them

I thought they killed themselves by being so restrictive. Their first Nook wasn't locked down. They have now realized their mistake, and have added Google's Play store. Although it might be too late.

 

[Bateluer]

I've read a lot of them and none of the ones I read are like those two books. I've found a lot of variety in the self published books.

Admittedly, I only look at the Top Selling self published lists. I wasn't impressed enough to dig further.

 

[ibex333]

nook tablets were already dying, amazon is killing them and everyone knows it

Not true at all. The Kindle is not the superior product. The Nook HD+ arguably looks better, weighs less, has a better resolution, and whats more important, a better aspect ratio. Its designed to be used in portrait mode, rather than landscape, which is much better for reading books IMO.

The Kindle has better speakers, and junk like X-Ray and such, but one can live without. It also has a front camera which Nook doesn't have, but the Nook has an SD expansion slot, which is important for storing more reading material. (not that you'll be reading more than like 10 books at a time anyway)