The Barnes & Noble Nook has propelled the company’s e-book sales to new highs. Sales of digital e-books now outpace traditional paperback and hardcover book sales online for B&N. With 20 percent of the e-book market share under its belt, Barnes and Noble is ready to take on Amazon in 2011.
Wondering how many digital e-books were downloaded by Nook users on Christmas Day? Just over one million e-books, according to Barnes and Noble. With an industry-wide decline in book sales combined with the company putting itself up for sale last summer, Barnes & Noble depends heavily on the success of its e-book store.
Much like Amazon and its Kindle, the Barnes & Noble Nook is now officially the company’s best-selling product. However, neither company has gone into specifics as far as an exact figure, but we know that the sales number compare the devices to items within a category, rather than a category as a whole.
Industry analysts believe that Barnes & Noble has sold about two million Nooks to date. Meanwhile the Amazon Kindle, which launched back in 2007, has sold approximately six million devices. Assuming these estimates are accurate, the Barnes & Noble Nook is performing extremely well. The addition of the Nook Color and Android store should heat up the competition with the Kindle in early 2011.
For now, Barnes & Noble continues to operate 717 namesake stores in the United States. In the most recent quarter, ending on October 30th, retail location sales were more than five times greater than on its website.
How do you see the battle in the e-book market playing out in 2011? Will Amazon continue to maintain the lion’s share or will the Barnes & Noble Nook look to increase their 20 percent share with the Nook Color?
Via Reuters
