Module 2: Application Case 3 - Barnes & Noble
Module 2 - Disruptive Force - Barnes and Noble
Read the case, Barnes and Noble: Managing the E-Book Revolution (use the link in the syllabus)
Q1. After reading the Barnes & Noble case you will be familiar with many of the factors involved in the e-book market. Your task is to design an e-book reader that will be a success in a market of your choice and will disrupt a market leader or leading technology. Chose the features that will make it successful. Be prepared to describe the reasoning behind each of your choices. a. Market: Identify the market you are designing for i. General pleasure reading ii. Legal forms iii. Textbooks iv.
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Weight (a few ounces to a pound or more) xi. Other feature (specify)
I think that flexible display, battery life and weight will help it successful. Because flexible display will make students feel comfortable when they read e-books, and the battery life and weight will make them feel convenient. They need not charge frequently, and it is easy to bring it. b. Digital Rights Management: What DRM capabilities xii. No DRM xiii. All content will DRM xiv. DRM is up to the content publisher
Digital Rights Management is very necessary and important. I think that DRM should up to the content publisher, and just make sure any competitors cannot copy all content. c. Pricing model: xv. Agency model xvi. Publisher Pricing xvii. Retailer pricing xviii. Other model (specify)
My choice is IV. Other model. I think that the e-book pricing model should be lower than books. Because it can help us to earn more profit. E-book has lower cost than books, and low sell price will help us to attract more consumers. d. E-book format xix. Proprietary format xx. Platform agnostic format
E-book format should be the proprietary format. I think that we must own the proprietary to protect our rights. e. Other feature(s) xxi. Size xxii. Can wirelessly download content xxiii. Able to pass
The digital books business eliminated the physical books in the store. Barnes & Noble offered a wide range digital platforms to its customers. The digital system was comparable with Window 8 personal computer and tablets. It also worked well with Apple’s product such as iPad, iPhone and other products like Android smartphones and tablets. The firm continued to stay in a competitive advantage position in the marketplace, even though it had to compete with many powerhouses in the same industry such as Waldenbooks and Crown Books. And yet, Barnes & Noble remains on the top of the leading U.S bookstore chains.
Three key challenges facing the Canadian book publishing industry are the concentration in retail market, the competition for multinationals, and the cost of adapting to new technologies and entering the export market. Policy source 14, Summative Evaluation of the Book Publishing Industry Development Industry Program discusses these challenges.
As a new revolution rears its head due to rapidly evolving technology, many are becoming concerned with the potential problems that e-books could present. Ms. Elliot, a retired librarian, expresses her apprehension and concern for this electronic book form through a speech conducted at the “Reading: the future” forum. Directing her speech to mainly booklovers, she also reaches out to parents whose children will be most affected by the development of e-books.
As demand for technology increases, many companies have begun to transfer every day items and tasks to an electronic version of the same program. A specific type of product that has been altered to be more compatible with growing technological demand is books. Before technology was popular, books were available as paperback and hardback copies only. However, as consumer demand for technology increases, tablets are becoming an asset to a person’s work materials. To accommodate for this shift in consumer wants, eBooks are created; these make up for the technological improvement and produce a cheaper alternative to actual books. The possibility of an eBook monopoly is steadily increasing and is already high
In this case, the traditional bookseller’s niche is overlapped the Big box retailers’. Because of the limited resources: only certain amount of people demand for popular books, they have to compete for the market of popular books. However, scale difference generates selection pressures. Obviously traditional booksellers have smaller scale and less purchasing power to compete with “Big box” retailers. When the electronic books came out, traditional booksellers struggle more. Although all booksellers were affected, “Big box”
Apart from my professional commitments, exalting success stories of E-Commerce platforms propelled me to go for my own online shopping venture “BookJugad”. The idea was to sell used internationally-authored books in good condition at the cheapest price. We established an end to end business
2-B&N and the book publishers are changing their business models to deal with the Internet and e-book technology by B&N developing its own e-readable devised called Nook. In order to meet demand and supply, they started to be actively in control of its supply chain by developing,
Barnes & Noble is a key player in the Book Retail Industry. This mature industry has been experiencing slow growth over the last several years, much slower than overall retail sales. Barriers to entry into this industry are quite high, and suppliers have modest influence over booksellers. The introduction of the Internet has brought about many changes to this industry. It has increased rivalry, buyer power, and substitutes. Spending time "surfing the net" is one of many substitutes to reading books nowadays. Other technological advances, such as VCR 's and video games, have replaced time otherwise spent reading. Buyers have greater influence over the industry, because they
Professor Harry Lindsol noticed a trend in regards to how the Internet had taken over the purchasing habits of individuals, particularly in college students. Dr. Lindsol observed students’ purchasing habits regarding college textbooks and how constantly the students are connected to the Internet. Lindsol recognized a potential business opportunity by questioning if student’s textbooks were available on their electronic devices, would an online company prosper? Dr. Lindsol analyzed the textbook industry for the possibility to start-up a potential eBook company. Lindsol examined the publishers’ business models of traditional textbooks and etextbooks, the competitors in the industry, and the advantages and disadvantages of a strictly-eBook publishing company.
The bookstore industry in the US is comprised of a mix of a few large chain bookstores such as Barnes and Noble and many smaller, private and/or family owned businesses. As far as market size goes, the bookstore industry accumulated approximately $14 billion in annual revenue last year, according to IBIS. The overall industry has been experiencing a decline over the last decade, largely as a consequence of the growing trend of e-commerce, and is expected to continue this trend. Many bookstores have tried to capitalize on the new trend by offering e-readers and e-books.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. operates as a content, commerce, and technology company in the United States. It provides access to books, magazines, newspapers, and other content through its multi-channel distribution platform. The company sells its products directly to customers through its bookstores and on barnesandnoble.com. Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through Barnes & Noble.com, one of the Web’s largest e-commerce sites, which also features more than 3 million titles in its eBookstore. Through Barnes & Noble’s NOOK eReading product offering, customers can buy and read eBooks on the widest range of platforms, including NOOK eBook
In September 2004, Wendy Wiley, the Northlake Bookstore manager, was considering the implications of a shocking development. For the first time in her seven years as the Bookstore manager, textbook sales for this fall had decreased from the prior fall sales. The sales decrease was approximately $180,000, or 3% of annual textbook sales. Wendy wanted to address this problem before it got worse. She found that this sales decrease was due to two emerging technology problems, possibly of equal magnitude: 1) the students’ increasing use of online
Electronic textbooks are more portable and convenient as they can be accessed by a tablet, downloaded onto a computer or accessed via the internet. The technological benefits available on an electronic textbook are endless. The audio and video capabilities will liven up learning and change the way students understand and retain the material. The emergence of three-dimensional technology may also play a role in the near future. In addition, digital textbooks are much more user friendly. Studying for tests will be more efficient as highlighted notes can be easily transferred into electronic note cards for memorization. The main downside to electronic textbooks is that students will have to purchase a reading device, tablet, laptop or smartphone in order to view digital textbooks away from home or on the go. Most college students have already made this investment prior to starting college.
Fall in e-book industry- Only 5 years ago; experts predicted a decline in the book industry, with the rise of I-pads, Kindle and other online reading devices. But, actually there is an opposite trend now. With the increase in rise of e-books and in the US alone the share of e-books sales fell to 20 %. While, the physical books’ sales rose over 4.8% to $2 billion. Bertelsmann has over 115,000 audio-books and e-books in its rank, and this could be less important than many people predicted. The Global sales of e-books will account for less than 25% of the industry turnover in 2020, even as revenue from physical books remains largely unchanged, hovering at about $46 billion for the next three
One of the significant drawbacks of e-books is the issue of compatibility. Various researchers argue that most e-books are not compatible with a variety of software. For instance, a book may be readable on a Kindle device and fail to display its contents in a different device due to compatibility issues. This makes it hard for readers to access all books. It also poses a challenge for readers as all software require a constant update. This is also a major inconvenience for readers as the books they purchase an older version of the software may become obsolete over time, and thus, require them to make a new purchase (Lai and Li 458). Notably, as much as the issue of compatibility describes the disadvantage of using an e-book, it presents a benefit of using the traditional books. This is because the reader will never encounter compatibility issues upon purchasing a hard copy book. Such a book can last for a long