Comments on: The Locative Value of the Nook

By: India

India — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:02:16 +0000

There's no doubt that e-readers are convenient for transporting a lot of books if you want to travel light. But if you're concerned about weight, why carry an e-reader—a single-use device—at all, when you can also store and read books on a cell phone or iPod Touch, which millions of people are already carrying with them all the time? The reading experience sucks, sure, but not as much as you might think, relative to other methods of reading e-books. My biggest problem with reading on an iPod is one that's shared (albeit to a lesser degree) by most other single-page e-reading interfaces.

By: Coop

Coop — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:46:33 +0000

I’m still interested. I think the Nook, like the Kindle, has real possibilities for folks on long trips (or job stints) to non-English-speaking countries, who can load the thing up before they leave, or for folks like me who want to live light.

By: Andrew Simone

Andrew Simone — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:32:16 +0000

Heh. I think you are more or less spot on, Daryl. I think the real service to print material should be (is going to be?) the Espresso Book Machine.

By: Daryl Scroggins

Daryl Scroggins — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:18:32 +0000

There are washaterias that sell mixed drinks; home repair centers that offer free grilled hotdogs out in the parking lot;: circuses that offer free rides on the elephants. Bookstores, though, have a huge costs associated with, well–a huge stock of books in a physical space. All retail businesses are scrambling to find ways to expand the range of sales to compensate for reduced traffic flow and more miserly customers. For people interested in sales, first and foremost, electronic copies of books are attractive primarily because they undercut the need to have the fixed place, the fixed stock, and the associated shipping and handling costs. If bookstores want to entertain as a way of making money–why not hire strippers to do poetry readings while crotch-rubbing a pole? Or maybe–open a fucking restaurant with free books on every table for conversation starters. Try selling gas these days without making most of your money from fountain drinks, bags of chips, and lotto tickets.

By: Andrew Simone

Andrew Simone — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:49:19 +0000

Bingo. B&N then becomes a place for an experience before it’s a bookstore.

By: Kevin B.

Kevin B. — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:47:28 +0000

Could it be that B & N’s goal is to get you in their space to sell something else? Coffee, greeting cards, magazines, music, DVDs and something to do with Harry Potter

By: Cindy Scroggins

Cindy Scroggins — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:08:43 +0000

I agree, Andrew. And I’m not buying one yet, either.

By: Andrew Simone

Andrew Simone — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:01:10 +0000

I suspect you’re right about the Nook not taking off, but if it does, then it isn’t because it is worse than the Kindle since both allow for remote purchase as well.

I also do not foresee myself buying one either. Not yet.

By: Cindy Scroggins

Cindy Scroggins — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:43:52 +0000

Thanks, y’all. I need a bookie for my nookie!

Connecting a device to a particular physical space is certainly an interesting concept, but I’ll be *really* surprised if this Barnes & Noble model takes off. I’ve spent my entire working life managing bookstores and libraries, and I’m having trouble meshing this model with known behavior patterns of readers/consumers/information seekers. I could be completely wrong, though–I guess time will tell!

Dave, if the idea is that B&N would have books available electronically that aren’t in their regular inventory, then something is definitely missing in the whole equation. They won’t make money by promoting their electronic access model within their physical stores without also catering to people who want physical books–people will just get angry that they have to buy a device in order to access the book electronically, when what they really wanted was the physical book. And for those who only want the electronic book, many will be put off by the idea of having to go to a particular place to browse or read it for free. If you can afford to buy the device, you can afford to purchase the download.

In my library–where most of our information is available electronically–we have a handful of people who prefer to come in and access our e-books and e-journals here, but the overwhelming majority of people prefer to access them off-site. The people who do want to come in are interested either in finding a place to read without distraction or in socializing–and, if the latter, they really aren’t reading. I’ll be very interested to see how this pans out for B&N.

By: Andrew Simone

Andrew Simone — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:58:43 +0000

1. What Dave said (although, ebooks are far from common yet, many publishers seem uncomfortable with them)

2. It’s smart from a marketing perspective (if you haven’t read Tim’s analysis, you should) because it connects people via a device with a physical place. This is an interesting business model that is wildly different than the Kindle.

3. If it is successful, it will get companies to think creatively about how to connect devices to locations.

I am not suggesting that this should/will replace the more classical way of buying and using books. In fact, I have argued the opposite.