Barnes & Noble, which recently reported mixed financial results for the third quarter, today released a new 8 GB version of its Nook Tablet, which will be sold for $199. This new pricing strategy will help Nook match its tablet price to that of its rival Amazon.com’s own tablet the Kindle Fire. B&N’s third-quarter profits dropped around 14% due to higher expenses that knocked away at its top-line growth while masking an increase in its same-store sales. However, the adjusted profits reported still managed to top expectations on Wall Street.
Buy the Nook Tablet 8 GB for $199
B&N now finds itself in a very hard position as it attempts to please both traditional retail-based investors as well as those who are interested in a digital future. The company’s efforts to go digital have generally been well-received, but these ventures still require significant investment so that they can compete with offerings from B&N’s rivals such as Amazon.com. The company looks like it is now ready to step up to the competition as it unveiled a tablet device based on its Nook tablet series with on-board memory of 8 GB.
The company has also reduced the cost of its Nook Color, and will now sell these devices at $169 instead of the earlier $199. The 16 GB version of the Nook Tablet will continue to be sold for $249, hence creating a reasonably varied price slate. This suggests that B&N might be shifting a bit from its previous stance that dictated that consumers would be ready to shell out a small premium in order to get greater on-board memory in their tablets. These price cuts follow the cuts that the company had made in November, when it had reduced the cost of the Nook Color tablet by around $50 and had cut the Nook Simple Touch’s price by $40 to make it $99 instead of the earlier $139.
These new cuts come at a time when B&N says that it is contemplating the division of its Nook-based business operations from its regular operations. This move has been mooted due to the management’s contestation that the current share price of the company doesn’t reflect the actual value of its Nook business. B&N Chief Executive Mr. William Lynch conveyed to analysts that B&N currently holds 27% to 30% of the e-book market, which is more than what the company has ever had in the physical book markets.
Buy the Nook Tablet 8 GB for $199
Buy the Nook Tablet 16 GB for $249
Buy the Nook Simple Touch for $99
