Barnes & Noble: Online Holiday Sales Up 67 Percent Thanks To The NOOK's Popularity

Leena Rao

Leena Rao is currently a Senior Editor for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003, where she was... → Learn More

Thursday, January 6th, 2011

The holiday season appears to have treated Barnes & Noble well, thanks in part to a strong demand for the company’s eReader the NOOK. The company just issued a release stating that it sold its entire inventory of NOOKcolor and E-Ink devices over the holiday season.

Of course, we knew that the NOOK was a bestseller for Barnes & Noble. The company issued a release following the Christmas holiday announcing that the line of NOOK eReading devices was the book retailer’s “biggest best selling” product of all time, with millions of devices sold. And the company said that it sells for digital books than physical books on its website.

B&N said today that strong device sales helped drive eBook content sales that have significantly exceeded forecasts. Barnes & Noble.com comparable sales increased 78% compared to last year’s holiday selling season. The company’s CEO William Lynch said that 60% of NOOKcolor owners are new customers of the Barnes & Noble digital bookstore. And total sales at Barnes & Noble.com came in at $228.5 million, an increase of 67% as compared to the period a year ago.

Amazon also reported record sales for Nook’s competitor, the Kindle, stating that the Kindle 3 is now the best selling Amazon product of all-time. Of course, the missing information in both Amazon and B&N’s released are the number of devices actually sold during the holiday period, which both companies have declined to release.

Product: nook
Website: nook.com

The nook is an electronic book reader produced by Barnes & Noble and runs on the Android platform. The nook will compete with the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, and other readers. It is said to include Wi-Fi and AT&T 3G wireless connectivity, a six inch E Ink display, and a separate, smaller color touchscreen that serves as the primary input device. The device will also have a MicroSD slot for extra storage. The nook has a user replaceable battery...

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