The eBook Cold War: B&N vs Amazon

[irishScott]

Its kinda hard to miss the nooks. B&N advertises them well, they have a large ebook catalog, their website displays their nook content more prominently than the physical books, their in-store employees are able to answer questions and show you how to use the nooks, etc.

I just don't get the hate on B&N, other than the one comment on stock price, its been entirely devoid any tangible evidence. So, ATOT's Elitism rearing its ugly head again?

I'm just saying I don't know anyone who goes to B&N to buy a nook. People go to B&N to buy books and/or get coffee. Probably due to the shelves and shelves of books there and the attached Starbucks. The disadvantage of being a brick and mortar store is having a set image like that, people remember what they see in person far better than what they see online. It's like McDonalds's salads. When you think "McDonalds" do you think "salad"? No, you think "cheap burgers and fries" or "big mac" despite the fact that they've had salads for years.

Amazon's image, being completely online and multifaceted to start with, is much more fluid.

I'm not saying B&N is screwed or that the nook is bad, quite the contrary IMO. They're just going to have to overcome some serious marketing obstacles to compete. Right now their most active marketing is kindle advertisements/reviews/reports that mention the nook by comparison. That has to change, fast.