By Maria LaMagna, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — A price cut this weekend means Barnes & Noble’s Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight costs just $99, even less than its rival, Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite.
Reuters
Former Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch shows off the company’s Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight last April. The CEO’s departure last month has cast doubt on the future of the Nook business.
Still, analysts say the company probably won’t see any large rise in consumers buying the device — especially given the uncertain future of the retailer’s struggling e-book business given last month’s surprise resignation of Barnes & Noble /quotes/zigman/132169/quotes/nls/bks BKS -4.53% CEO William Lynch following growing losses in the Nook unit.
For the Nook devices, a price cut doesn’t do much to relieve concerns that e-books consumers buy now may be obsolete later, said Sarah Rotman Epps, a senior analyst with Forrester Research, in a note.
“Consumers will be reluctant to buy Nook products until there’s more certainty about the Nook’s future,” she said. “I’m sure there will be some entity — whether that’s Microsoft /quotes/zigman/20493/quotes/nls/msft MSFT -0.78% or another investor — that will keep the Nook alive in some fashion, but consumers hear reports that Barnes & Noble /quotes/zigman/132169/quotes/nls/bks BKS -4.53% is in trouble and that doesn’t inspire confidence in the product.”
Barnes & Noble announced on Sunday that its Nook Simple Touch GlowLight now starts at $99 — about 17% below the starting price for the Kindle Paperwhite from Amazon /quotes/zigman/63011/quotes/nls/amzn AMZN +0.50% . Both companies announced their backlit e-readers last year in an effort to compete with a growing line of lower-priced tablets.
[h=3]The Elephant threat to Big Tech[/h]What do you get when you cross Google with a toy elephant? A threat to sales growth for some big technology companies, and a new breed of promising IPO candidates. Heard on the Street's Rolfe Winkler joins MoneyBeat.
But while Amazon has a massive retail business that does not depend on the Kindle, Barnes & Noble had been looking to the Nook to help revitalize itself as a company. That hasn’t worked out as planned, according to technology analyst Jeff Kagan.
The Nook and Kindle started to become more distinct over time, as Kindle gained more features than Nook did, Kagan said. Competition between the two was less about price than what each device could do. The price cut now is just about selling the products Barnes & Noble already has, he added.
Kagan also noted that customers were already choosing between the devices based on a brand relationship, not price.
“The question for Barnes & Noble now is, ‘What’s next?’ I don’t have an answer,” Kagan said. “Are they going to change the way they address the marketplace and become more like a tablet, like an Amazon.com Kindle, or continue down the same Nook path and crash and burn?”
/quotes/zigman/132169/quotes/nls/bks
US : U.S.: NYSE
Volume: 1.04M
Aug. 19, 2013 3:23p
Rev. per Employee$201,147
/quotes/zigman/20493/quotes/nls/msft
US : U.S.: Nasdaq
Volume: 20.75M
Aug. 19, 2013 3:23p
Market Cap$264.89 billion
Rev. per Employee$784,384
/quotes/zigman/132169/quotes/nls/bks
US : U.S.: NYSE
Volume: 1.04M
Aug. 19, 2013 3:23p
Rev. per Employee$201,147
/quotes/zigman/63011/quotes/nls/amzn
US : U.S.: Nasdaq
Volume: 2.08M
Aug. 19, 2013 3:23p
Market Cap$130.13 billion
Rev. per Employee$756,199
Maria LaMagna is a MarketWatch reporter in New York.
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — A price cut this weekend means Barnes & Noble’s Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight costs just $99, even less than its rival, Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite.
Reuters
Former Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch shows off the company’s Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight last April. The CEO’s departure last month has cast doubt on the future of the Nook business.
Still, analysts say the company probably won’t see any large rise in consumers buying the device — especially given the uncertain future of the retailer’s struggling e-book business given last month’s surprise resignation of Barnes & Noble /quotes/zigman/132169/quotes/nls/bks BKS -4.53% CEO William Lynch following growing losses in the Nook unit.
For the Nook devices, a price cut doesn’t do much to relieve concerns that e-books consumers buy now may be obsolete later, said Sarah Rotman Epps, a senior analyst with Forrester Research, in a note.
“Consumers will be reluctant to buy Nook products until there’s more certainty about the Nook’s future,” she said. “I’m sure there will be some entity — whether that’s Microsoft /quotes/zigman/20493/quotes/nls/msft MSFT -0.78% or another investor — that will keep the Nook alive in some fashion, but consumers hear reports that Barnes & Noble /quotes/zigman/132169/quotes/nls/bks BKS -4.53% is in trouble and that doesn’t inspire confidence in the product.”
Barnes & Noble announced on Sunday that its Nook Simple Touch GlowLight now starts at $99 — about 17% below the starting price for the Kindle Paperwhite from Amazon /quotes/zigman/63011/quotes/nls/amzn AMZN +0.50% . Both companies announced their backlit e-readers last year in an effort to compete with a growing line of lower-priced tablets.
[h=3]The Elephant threat to Big Tech[/h]What do you get when you cross Google with a toy elephant? A threat to sales growth for some big technology companies, and a new breed of promising IPO candidates. Heard on the Street's Rolfe Winkler joins MoneyBeat.
But while Amazon has a massive retail business that does not depend on the Kindle, Barnes & Noble had been looking to the Nook to help revitalize itself as a company. That hasn’t worked out as planned, according to technology analyst Jeff Kagan.
The Nook and Kindle started to become more distinct over time, as Kindle gained more features than Nook did, Kagan said. Competition between the two was less about price than what each device could do. The price cut now is just about selling the products Barnes & Noble already has, he added.
Kagan also noted that customers were already choosing between the devices based on a brand relationship, not price.
“The question for Barnes & Noble now is, ‘What’s next?’ I don’t have an answer,” Kagan said. “Are they going to change the way they address the marketplace and become more like a tablet, like an Amazon.com Kindle, or continue down the same Nook path and crash and burn?”
/quotes/zigman/132169/quotes/nls/bks
Volume: 1.04M
Aug. 19, 2013 3:23p
Rev. per Employee$201,147
/quotes/zigman/20493/quotes/nls/msft
Volume: 20.75M
Aug. 19, 2013 3:23p
Market Cap$264.89 billion
Rev. per Employee$784,384
/quotes/zigman/132169/quotes/nls/bks
Volume: 1.04M
Aug. 19, 2013 3:23p
Rev. per Employee$201,147
/quotes/zigman/63011/quotes/nls/amzn
Volume: 2.08M
Aug. 19, 2013 3:23p
Market Cap$130.13 billion
Rev. per Employee$756,199
Maria LaMagna is a MarketWatch reporter in New York.