US book retailer Barnes & Noble are experiencing pressure with sales of their nook falling. These purpose specific devices are challenges because of many other multi purpose devices filling the need of reading platform. I see people reading books, newspapers and magazines on their tables – iPads, samsung and Slate – as well as on their smartphones – maybe soon on watches. In the pressure of what you carry in a bag or handbag, a single purpose device was always going to have a limited life.
Some newsagents were keen to get into the book e-reader reseller space. History is showing it would not have boon even medium-term good for us.
I think the biggest problem for the Nook was not that people don’t like e-readers, its that the Kindle has more content, better choice of models and more options/features. Plus (unlike the Nook) you can read your Kindle books via the Kindle browser reader, the Kindle apps for iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone plus the Kindle apps for Mac and Windows.
Lots of people buy Kindles for the times when using a smartphone or tablet is not necessarily an option (e.g. a Kindle is a better choice when you are flying long haul in a cramped economy seat with no power point to charge your device)
I dont think anyone has the power to beat Amazon in the eBook space except maybe Apple or Google (and only because both players have such a large base of devices that they can use to push their books onto)