Sometimes it is hard to see the forest through the trees; with the latest quarterly decline of the Nook, one could ask if this is part of a product change or a consumer shift. Sales for the year rose from the year earlier, but sales for their fiscal fourth quarter declined. Was the decline due to the introduction of a newer model and consumers waiting to buy it or due to a shift from e-readers to tablets? Now that digital has been broken out from the brick and mortar business, investors can see more clearly which segments are rising and which are hurting.
More interesting is the effect the future introduction of the Microsoft Surface has on the tablet industry this year. With Apple, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble competing in the tablet space, Microsoft Surface could take away share from these guys. With Microsoft's investment in B&N, should there be more synergy. The Nook app store running inside Surface or sales of Surface at all B&N bookstores. It makes me wonder, are they partnering or are they competing?
Microsoft's pushing to recruit developers to Windows 8, which is no surprise. Since their platform will be based on Windows 8 and not have all the stupid rules and restrictions of Apple's racketeering App store, the Windows 8 Nook and Kindle apps should run on Surface.
ReplyDelete