Barnes & Noble, the famous Nook tablet maker, has posted solid sales in its tablet, the Nook and also its printed books business, in the holiday quarter. As Barnes & Noble posted its result, it seems as if the company’s tablet is a good contender against the Amazon Kindle Fire.
At the Nook business, sales, which include sales of devices and e-books, increased by 38%, as the company reported sales of $542 million in the holiday quarter, which came to an end on the 28th of January. Moreover, sales of physical books in the company’s 720 superstores increased by 4.2 percent. A factor contributing to increase in sales of physical books could be the shutdown of the company’s rival, Borders Group, as this is the 1st holiday quarter for the firm after Borders Group’s closing.
Barnes & Noble has been competing with Amazon and its tablet, the Kindle Fire. The battle between the two companies has been watched by analysts closely. Both companies came up with tablets cum e-book readers last year and both of them were launched as serious competition for each other.
William Lynch, Barnes & Noble’s chief executive said that the company now has a 27-30 percent share in the digital books market of United States, as compared to a previous 27 percent share in the market.
However, for Barnes & Noble, growth has come with strings attached as the biggest bookstore chain in the United States dropped the price of its Nook Color electronic book reader from $199 to $169. The retailer also introduced a new Nook tablet which will cost consumers just $199, which is $50 less than its original version of the tablet and ironically, is the same price as the Kindle Fire tablet. The thing going against Nook was the slightly higher price tag but that has also been eradicated by the company, which is aiming to go one on one and head to head against Amazon.
