Every Christmas season industries in the consumer sectors of our economy try to reinvent themselves. The retailers convince you that you must have some certain new item, one which they can make a high profit on, and sell you in bulk. As the competition gets fiercer, there really isn't as much profit as they presumed. Nevertheless, the pervasive Christmas spending goes on. If you'll recall in previous years; flat screen TVs where the big thing, last year it was the iPhone and iPad. This year it appears to be tablet computers and E-Readers
There have been some rather interesting articles in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and other national newspapers about all the new E-Readers coming out now for the holiday season, still to get the real skinny on who has what, who is selling which models, and what the implications are for the industry, one really has to read the online techie guru assessments.
BARNES AND NOBLE
In fact, there was an interesting article on Read Write Web on November 8, 2011 titled; "Amazon Bulks Up Against the Nook, Kindles Come to 16,000 Retail Outlets", by Jon Mitchell - which was very telling indeed. I'd say this means a full-scale retail war for the future of the E-Reader, and it looks as if Amazon is pulling out all the stops and using Karl von Clausewitz's theory of "overwhelming force" to fight back against Barnes and Nobles response to Amazon's pre-emptive strike with Amazon Fire. The Read Write Web article stated:
"Barnes & Noble may have more control over its in-person retail experience than Amazon does, but Amazon is bigger in several key ways. Its Android app marketplace is broader, for one thing. But it's Amazon's massive cloud computing scale that gives it the real edge. Amazon is able to accelerate its Silk Web browser and stream Amazon Prime video to the Kindle Fire thanks to its scale. It can also offer high-bandwidth, digital-only services like a lending library for the Kindle."
Okay so, let's discuss this for a moment, but first a word from our sponsor, just kidding, but first I must declare that I personally have E-books on both Barnes and Noble and the Amazon Kindle websites in full-and-fair disclosure.
It appears that a full-scale war is growing into epic proportions for this Christmas season. How many E-Readers will be sold, and bought by Christmas givers during this holiday season? Can the likes of Amazon survive by actually selling their E-Readers at a loss in hopes that people getting these E-Readers will then go and buy E-books on their Kindle website? And what about Barnes & Noble who's stock price hasn't gone anywhere in nearly a decade? Will this Christmas season uplift Barnes & Noble so they don't go the same way as borders books which filed bankruptcy?
Only time will tell of course, but you can bet these E-book readers are the weapon of choice in the new retail battlespace this Christmas. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.
Let the Christmas 2011 E-Reader Retail Wars Begin! BARNES AND NOBLE
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