“Calling the ‘Nook,’ eBook reader its ‘single best-selling product,’ Barnes & Noble CEO Steve Riggio this morning argued the gadget is helping lure customers to its stores and boosting online traffic,” Tiernan Ray reports for Barron’s.
MacDailyNews Take: What other product does Barnes & Noble offer under their brand, a clip-on book light? No, seriously, do they even have that? They sell other people’s books, but Ray specifically states “its” when referring to “single best-selling product.” So if you only have one product, it certainly isn’t difficult to make it your “best seller.” Sell one and you’re done. Issue the press release.
Ray continues, “Much as with Amazon.com and its ‘Kindle’ eReader, Riggio declined to give sales figures.”
MacDailyNews Take: What a surprise.
Ray continues, “When asked about the large up-front cost to develop the Nook, and the imminent arrival of Apple’s iPad — it goes on sale in about a month — Riggio responded, ‘Gee, that’s a great question,’ and then went on to clarify that the company’s eBooks are available on multiple devices, including Macs and PCs and BlackBerries and iPhones.”
Full article here.
@macaholic
That’s right! Hahaha! Not sure if I actually ever saw one up close.
In other news, Jeff Bezos patents “Kindling”, a process which one says things are selling extremely well, when they are not. Then proceeds to sue Barnes and Noble’s CEO over patent infringement.
It’s like using the words 5 star restaurant and McDonald’s in the same sentence. When we are near the holidays and Nook/Kindle sales have dwindled, let’s revisit this topic.
@reintree
re; (un)comfortable
There is no scientific evidence that either e-ink or LCD is inherently more likely that the other to tire the eyes. In other words this is probably a matter of preference.
I’m sure that there are a subset of people that would find either uncomfortable when reading for long stretches. However, given the prevalence of LCDs, I do not think the number of consumers that will not buy an iPad because of the display is going to be a significant factor in whether it succeeds or not.
@ChrissyOne
I’m sure you could set it as the background image… possibly
@ predrag
@ me in LA
@ DRMSSB – really? ask my EYE DOCTOR
I am not putting down the iPad. I want it. I don’t think the Kindle and Nook will be able to outshine it in any way. But they should continue to exist for those that don’t want to do anything but read text comfortably.
Give me a break. Did you read what I wrote? Why are you attacking me? Of course the iPad is revolutionary and awesome, etc. Great for reading? Sure.
But, having spent many hours with Kindles, Nooks, iPhones, MacBooks, iMacs, LCDs in general, guess what? The e-ink display causes LESS eyestrain. Everyone knows that. Backlighting is NOT good for you. Doesn’t everyone know that?
Being a Mac loyalist does not mean acting like anything else is purely wrong. Is Steve Jobs your eye doctor or something?
Glossy screens are great at providing richer color, but in particular, at the cost of considerable eyestrain. Ask your eye doctor instead of complaining to me. I did and he said glossy displays, like the ones I use ALL THE FREAKING TIME are not good for your eyes. The glare and reflection are NOT good. Guess what the iPad has? A glossy LCD.
The iPad will run circles around the Nook and Kindle in terms of what it can do, but in terms of non-reflective, non-backlit screens, the Kindle and Nook are easier on the eyes and better for reading ordinary text. Period.
(backlighting is a huge cause of eyestrain – do you like staring at a fluorescent bulb much? That’s basically what you are doing with an LCD. Open it and look inside.)
Oce again, ask your eye doctor or go to medical school to be an eye doctor before attacking me. I can’t wait to get the iPad but I wish the e-ink technology would support color and high refresh rates, which it does not at the moment.
Geez…
BTW, LCD in general typically supports a smaller color gamut than CRT displays, i.e. the color range is WORSE. Unless you get more expensive LCDs that support 100% or more of the NTSC color gamut.
Looking forward to the iPad but the Kindle and Nook (especially the large Kindle) have a use too.
@Reintree
” it will be an uncomfortable glossy LCD display – great as a computer, but not so great to just read printed books”.
Have you actually seen one?, used one?. I don’t think so! Why do people always do this? You are complaining about a product that hasn’t even shipped. You have not touched or seen one in person, let alone read anything on its screen to say that.
Please people, let’s just wait to see one and use one before jumping to conclusions.
Reintree
“That’s the truth.” “Everyone knows that.”
Those two sentences mark you as troll. Peddle your FUD elsewhere, perhaps on a nook site. You have most likely never touched the iPad. Come back after you do.
…a Nook can’t read and a Nook can’t cook, so what good to a Nook is a hook cook book? .
The reason I’ll get an iPad instead of a Kindle or Nook is very simple: I want to be able to read all of the 100 best books of the 20th century- and that includes Watchmen. The ability to have full-color graphic novels, manga, comic books, and do forth is a powerful force. It will also be useful for cookbooks, nature guides, photo essays, etc, all of which benefit from full-color displays. Books are not just text. Imagine even a reproduced bible with art and images in full-color, to say nothing of choose-your-own-adventure books and kuds’ books.
mike g has been iCal’ed. Moron.
Hey MIke, the cube was a great computer. The only problem with it was they had other Macs with more functionality for less money. They’ve never made that mistake since.
@mike g:
How nice to see that you’re running for Moron of the Year!
Wrong, mike g. You are utterly and irrevocably in error. And I’ll put up a $1000 (more, if you would like) to back that up. That will be the surest bet that I have ever made.
Seriously, mike g. Or are you just spewing?
@ Carlos
No – good point, I haven’t seen it in person. However, I do have the SDK with simulator because I am an iPhone developer. I spend most of my waking hours in front of an iMac, MacBook and iPhone. All glossy, all LCD, all the time. When I take a break and read a physical book or magazine, it feels good to get away from the glossy backlighting of current tech. I’m just saying that the eink screens are not LCD and they are not backlit. That’s all.
@ silverhawk
whatever hawk dude, grow some courtesy, I’m not pushing the Nook or the Kindle, just that they do have a use, limited as it may be, My mom can’t work an iPhone or an iPod and can barely use a computer, she could probably work a Kindle though and she just likes to read books, thats all I am talking about, plus the benefits that eink provides. I hope the iPad will change to eink in the future as the eink technology improves. Right now, eink is very slow refresh and is only black and white. Not suitable for anything animated or moving or color.
Tough croud here. Now I’m being called a troll?
@ all
Why bash on “mike g”?
The media hype around the iPad is a little silly. Just my opinion.
There actually have been a lot of Apple flops and the company almost went out of business before they brought back Steve Jobs and introduced the iMacs and iPods and most importantly, OS X and then Intel CPUs.
I had a Mac in the mid-late 1990s that could not get out of its own way. In contrast, my Windows Pentium 120 mhz laptop had ethernet, a modem, could go online, it was good. My Proforma Mac could barely go online with a crappy Netscape and was so slow it was unusable, even back then. It was useless and totally outdated even though it was new.
Now, the tables have turned. My MacBook and iMac run circles around most everything on the market with 4GB ram each, intel core 2 duo, and the fanstastic Unix based OS X which is rock solid. I love Apple products but they have not always been awesome. I think the iPad is going to be great but I think it is a stepping stone and let’s wait and see.