For some reason I’m amazed by the success of Barnes & Noble (and Kobo formerly of Indigo now independent) retailers when they move into the ebook space.
It makes me wonder what the difference is in Britain and Ireland and why ebooks haven’t had the same impact at the retail level. Perhaps it’s the power of OWNING your own reader as both B&N and Kobo do?
Whatever the reason, I’m sure there are retailers in Ireland’s who’d welcome this kind of growth in digital sales.
The company cited sales of its e-reading device, the Nook, as the driving force behind the increase in online revenue. Sales of the device itself accelerated even further after the company reduced its price from $259 to $199 and added a $149 Wi-Fi-only version to its shelves in June. The bookseller also released apps for Android and iPhone devices this summer.
Barnes & Noble claims that e-book sales continue to accelerate week-over-week, and that owners of the company’s e-reader, which was launched nine months ago, have increased their spending with the bookseller by approximately 20% Barnes & Noble Chairman Leonard Riggio fixed that number at 17% during a conference call with investors in June. Roughly a quarter of these device owners had never before purchased anything from the company’s website.
Eoin Purcell's Blog 
The cost is still prohibitive. Amazon is promoting the kindle heavily at the moment, and I was horrified to see it’s still over 100 quid for a basic one. And then you’ve got to buy the books on top, and if you look at the fiction titles, you see they are cheaper – by a few pence. And then knowing that in a year or two at most it’s going to be updated and you’ll have to spend another shedload (even if the price has gone down significantly to say 70 quid). Why do that? When you could just buy the books? You have to really want the gadget.
You do know I am hugely fond of you, Eoin, even though I keep turning up at the site like a bad fairy because the ebook is being so poorly conceived and introduced on the market to my mind!
I wouldn’t disagree with you Litlove, in fact I’ve said before that I think ebooks are something of a cul-de-sac that the whole industry is driving doen ever more rapidly.
Personally I’m keener on the books, but I can see why many people would feel differently.
That said:
1) The cost is actually remarkably low for what it is. Most companies selling them at these prices are now losing money or just about breaking even.
2) There’s not much need to update for some time after purchase and even if you choose to, the material transfers.
3) The cost of ebooks in the UK is pretty damn low right now because of the price war between WH Smiths and Amazon.
4) I’d expect some time soon that one of these companies will give away the device.
Still I’m not too concerned if ereaders don’t work in the long term. I expect digital reading and publishing to become pretty substantial parts of the industry, but it doesn’t bother me how that happens or what form it takes.
Eoin
And here’s another take on this story, showing why it is not all good news for Barnes and Noble. The effort they have poured into ebooks has been balanced by a big decline in their core business, while the new medium clearly isn’t reaping much profit. Also I thought this interesting:
‘Mr. Lynch, the retailer’s former digital chief who was appointed CEO in March, said in the conference call that the company sees “only three to four big players in the e-book market over time” because of the cost and difficulty of converting books to a digital format, which he compared to “hand to hand combat.”‘
Is this really good for a struggling book industry? Anyhow, you can read the whole thing (and I promise one day soon to say something good about ebooks, really, I will try!):
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703447004575449271400843854.html
I don’t think we have a choice! That’s the sad part.
Players with deep pockets are controlling the direction of books now and they have decided to push ebooks. B&N had to respond or they risked losing even more of their market.
Publishers need to respond ro Amazon will just cut them out (as they’ll do anyway).
Eoin