According to Reuters Barnes & Noble’s Nook unit reported some weak sales figures for the holiday season. The numbers came in this week and showed that fewer e-readers and tablets have been sold at the company’s own stores, plus the e-book sales growth has slowed. This begs a question: will Barnes & Noble still be in the game or fall just like other Amazon rivals?
Nook was launched in 2009 and wanted to compete with Amazon’s famous Kindle, as a way for Barnes & Noble to get into the digital age. This was done to smoothen the transition to digital books for Barnes & Noble faithful customers. Microsoft was excited by the prospect and invested in B & N last year, with rumors saying that they may end up buying them and creating a special Nook with Windows. That didn’t happen in the end and now it appears that British education and media publisher Pearson Pic will take a 5% stake in the Barnes & Noble Nook Media Unit.
Sales of digital content such as e-books and magazines grew 13.1% during the holidays, at a very slow pace when compared to the 38% increase from last quarter and the 113% huge growth of the 2011 holiday season. Last we checked B & N had a 25% to 30% share of the US e-book market, but now they’re bleeding market share in favour of Amazon and who knows, maybe even Kobo.
