Watch this space, Amazon

David Blackburn

Tuesday, 8th November 2011

Yesterday, American bookstore Barnes & Noble launched its latest crusade against the Kindle. At a special conference at its New York headquarters, it unveiled the ‘Nook’ tablet to a raucous fanfare. The Bookseller reports that “everything about the press conference was an aggressive counter-punch to its main rival and its tactics”. The Kindle was compared to a “vending machine”, while the Nook was said to offer customers a better service.

The technology press is fairly impressed with the Nook. B&N have partnered companies like Netfix and Pandora to give users a wide choice of media, and long collaboration with technology manufacturer Foxconn, which worked on the i-Phone, has produced a screen that is superior to that of the Kindle. The tablet also has 11 hours of reading time; 3 hours more than the Kindle Fire with which it is competing. These advantages are somewhat undone by the Nook’s price, which, at $249, is $50 more than the top-of-the-range Kindle.

B&N claims to control 27 per cent of the digital market in the States — a haven in troubled seas for high street booksellers at present. The various Nook products are not currently available in the UK, but yesterday B&N said that it will venture into international digital markets next year. CEO William Lynch added that the company “wants to do it [expansion] right”. This opaque statement raised press speculation about possible co-operation between B&N and Waterstone’s, which is due to launch an e-book device next spring.

That speculation is not as far-fetched as it might seem. Competition is fierce enough without those two booksellers wasting their strength on each other; it makes sense for them to ally where possible, especially as there are signs of an emerging co-operative will within the books trade. Hamstrung publishers appear to be fostering an alliance against Amazon, and they are pinning their hopes on the digital rivals to the Kindle. An unnamed executive in New York told the Bookseller:

“We are all hoping B&N will compete successfully. We need them to do so. Amazon engages in thuggish tactics and treats the whole book business as a loss leader.”

Similar sentiments were voiced in private last Thursday when industry figures convened for a party at the Fifth Floor Bar in Waterstone’s Piccadilly. Executives at Waterstone’s are openly receptive to the idea. Chairman Miranda Curtis said that “new collaborative structures between publishers, retailers and distributors” should be built. No prizes for guessing what that cabal would conspire against.

Blog Tags: Amazon , Bookshops , Business , Internet , Publishing