Posted on 2013-Nov-27
Nice Progress
The latest financial report from Barnes and Noble does not bode well for their underwhelming performance in several departments. Despite the positive signals coming from its latest software release posted yesterday, sales decline has become one of the big challenges. The company’s president hopes that the upcoming holiday seasons will drive more sales back to their business.
Nook for Windows 8.1 and Multilingual Support
Before we go into details about the gloomy side of the business, Nov. 25 was another celebratory moment for Nook to be officially launched for Windows 8.1 in 32 countries and 21 languages according to their press release. The good news is any device that comes with Windows 8.1 preinstalled can access Nook store to buy eBooks, digital magazines, newspapers, and comics. Readers can also buy and read their digital content right from the app in their local languages. Skydrive integration is another feature worth mentioning now that readers can import their EPUB/PDF files from the file hosting service into Nook library. Live tile integration is another convenient function that brings reading the app’s updates to the Start screen.
Financial Report
Barnes and Noble’s report of second quarter of its fiscal 2014 has just been released yesterday. Their revenues decreased 8% to $1.7 billion compared to the previous year. College bookstore also suffers from revenue decline 4.6% to $737.5 million when they were supposed to perform better in sales. Nook revenue took the critical fall as the devices and accessories sales decrease 41.3% compared to the same period last year. Heavy discounting does not seem to help the company sell more devices as expected. To worsen the matter, digital content sales saw a decline of 21.2% because of lower average selling prices and lower device unit sales.
Optimistic Plan
Nonetheless, the company’s President and CEO of Nook Media, Michael P. Huseby, is optimistic about their upcoming plan to boost sales of their devices. “The company is focused on executing its plan for the holiday season and our booksellers are prepared to welcome holiday shoppers and recommend thoughtful gift ideas for everyone on their list. We have a terrific book title line-up this holiday season, a leading assortment of Educational Toys & Games and a full selection of NOOK devices, including our recently released new NOOK GlowLight,” Mr. Huseby said.
Minimal Profit
Although it has been an unfortunate year for Barnes and Noble to operate their business with a steep sales decline, the holiday season could cast sunlight back on their land as they achieve a minimally profitable position. To interpret its CEO plans to boost their sales, it remains to be seen what marketing strategy the company has up their sleeve. Somehow, the integration with Microsoft Windows could indicate their significant step to branch out support outside its application’s ecosystem by approaching mobile device users.
Label: eBook Industry News
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