Daily Archives: November 30, 2009

David Gelles More setbacks for the Nook

November 30, 2009 11:50 pm by David Gelles

Just as Amazon’s Kindle is going all gangbusters at the start of the holiday season, the launch of perhaps its most-formidable rival is getting off to a rocky start.

The Nook, an e-reader from bookseller giant Barnes & Noble, was hailed as an improvement on the Kindle when it was unveiled in October. It supports the open Epub file format, and has a colour, touch-screen navigation interface in addition to an E-Ink screen.

But Barnes & Noble looks to have been blindsided by high demand for the Nook. A week before Thanksgiving the company said the Nook would be sold-out through the holidays.

Now comes news that while shipments will begin today, as scheduled, the Nook will not be available in Barnes & Noble stores until December 7. Read more

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David Gelles Tech plays central role as holiday shopping ramps up

November 30, 2009 7:48 pm by David Gelles

Amazon and Apple must be feeling pretty good about the holidays so far.

Buoyed by Black Friday, Amazon said that November has been the best sales month ever for its Kindle. Amazon still won’t release sales figures, and e-readers could soon be outdated devices, but for now, the Kindle remains the market leader in one of the hottest consumer electronic categories of the year. (It helps that Sony’s new flagship reader and the Barnes & Noble Nook are sold out.)

Meanwhile, traffic on Amazon.com was up 28 per cent from the previous year.

Apple, too, looks to have had a big Black Friday, with online sales up 39 per cent. Sales in Apple’s retail stores appeared down, but overall, the maker of Mac computers, iPhones and iPods seems poised for robust sales this holiday season.

Even brick and mortar retailers tried to tap the web’s magic to boost holiday sales. Read more

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