[thematt]

I think the Nook is B&N's last attempt at salvaging their company, but ultimately I don't think they can win. Amazon can destroy them in pricing and make up for it with the follow-on purchases that people will make of books, media, etc. B&N simply cannot afford (financially) to take a loss on the hardware. If they wanted to -- Amazon could start giving away Kindle's for free (or dirt cheap) to Prime subscribers and it would probably destroy B&N.

[bunderbunder]

I think it could have worked a year ago. Then, they had a very plausible "reader's tablet" - something with a reading focus that does more than an e-reader, but without being as bulky/expensive as the iPad.

But they launched it with no 3rd-party apps, so instead it appeared on the market as merely a "color e-reader" - something that costs more and has less battery life, all in the service of a color screen that mostly only provides a tangibly better experience for a subset of periodicals. But nobody really reads The Economist for the pictures, and People subscribers probably aren't big players in the target demographic.

They did later bring out an app market. But it was months late and anemic; not the kind of thing that was likely to turn many heads. And they didn't push that idea hard. So Amazon comes along and does, and I fear that from here out anything that B&N could possibly do will be too little, too late.

[shrikant]

Also, I don't know what split is like, but it is ridiculously easy to buy a Kindle in the UK (and I'm going to extrapolate that to Europe). Or if that doesn't float your boat, then just pick up a Sony or Kobo eReader - all you need to do is walk into the any major electronics retailer.

Given that this market exists, and is being actively courted by every player in this field, B&N will NEED to sort out global distribution somehow, otherwise they will get crushed. Unless of course they believe a good run in the American market alone will give them enough momentum to launch in Europe whenever they see fit... and that's probably not going to happen.

[bunderbunder]

I'm already becoming dissatisfied with my Nook over B&N's failure to really come to terms with the rest of the world. The number of non-North American authors I follow whose work is for sale in Kindle editions but not Nook editions isn't exactly zero.

[gyardley]

B&N simply cannot afford (financially) to take a loss on the hardware.

They're doing this already. People with Nooks make follow-on purchases too.

Over the past couple of years, I've seen B&N upgrade their tech and product teams and lay the groundwork for a future where they - like Amazon - have no physical locations but offer far more than books over the web, and make much of their money through the sale of digital goods.

I'm skeptical they'll catch up with Amazon, but when the actual physical bookstore is a quaint and obscure relic, I think they'll still be trucking along quite nicely. The company's already massively undervalued given their share of the ebook market.