Excitement Over B&N/Microsoft Teamup Is A Bit Premature
from the what-exactly-is-the-plan-here? dept
There's just something about when also-ran brands suddenly team up to try to "do something" that gets clueless people excited. It almost never works however. The latest is that Microsoft and Barnes & Noble have settled their (somewhat acrimonious) patent dispute (in which B&N was making the case that Microsoft violated antitrust law with its patents) in order to work together on a new spinoff company built around the Nook ebook platform. To be fair, lots of reviewers have raved about the Nook, and noted that it's actually a better device than the Kindle. But actually getting the market to agree has been a pretty big challenge. Could Microsoft help? Perhaps, but these kinds of linkups don't have much of a history of working well. In part, it's because you have different parties with different priorities. In part, it's because deals like this usually involved a lot more planning than executing. But, largely, it's because these companies don't really understand the market. At least, they seem to think that if they do a few superficial things up front, that will suddenly catapult them to the top. They may discover it's a lot more difficult than that.But, of course, that hasn't stopped some from getting really excited about this. B&N stock shot upwards in response, though perhaps it was just because investors were happy that the company was able to "unload" the Nook. But, then, you see comments like this:
"With the new Windows rollout, there are so many things you can do with the Nook beyond e-reading," Glickstein, who is based in New York, said today in a telephone interview. "Now that Bill Gates and Microsoft are in on the tech side, it’s absolutely compelling."Of course, you could do lots of things with the Nook beyond e-reading that have nothing to do with Windows. Tying the Android-based platform to anything having to do with Windows seems like a step backwards, not forward. Also, er, someone should tell this guy that Bill Gates retired four years ago. But, you know, why would anyone who's in charge of analyzing these kinds of things be aware of little facts like that?
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Filed Under: android, ebooks, nook
Companies: barnes & noble, microsoft
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Seems Like A Face-Saving Measure
Look for this joint venture to die a quiet death over the next couple of years. Yes, the Nook is doing well, but Windows Phone/RT/8 is not. So Microsoft is bringing nothing useful to the table.
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It may be worth some excitement.
Additionally, by the time a Win8 Nook device comes out, it is probably likely that most books will be back on a wholesale distribution model and the agency model will be rare if not illegal by that time. MS can again throw money at this and say pay $0.10 for each book in order to get adoptions rates way up. Assuming they go with no DRM they can can advertise it as a no risk purchase which Amazon can't do.
Ms+BN+Publishers, not likely that all of the above would happen but given MS in the mix who has more interest in pushing the OS and getting big adoption rates, it seems viable. They could blow 1 billion subsidizing devices and book costs for years and still come out ahead if, like the XBox they keep at it over several years while they fix deficiencies.
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Re: It may be worth some excitement.
I'm not certain what you mean by this (Microsoft is certainly not first with a usable touch interface), but since Win 8 is not actually released yet, it's too soon to say whether or not it's a success. Initial reviews, both published and informal "water cooler" are highly mixed.
I don't think anybody can predict yet whether or not Microsoft's big bet will pay off.
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MS = Poison Ivy
That being said, this B&N/Nook thing seems to be somewhere in the middle of interesting, curious, and bizarre. I can't see what Win8/MS actually brings to the table for the Nook, but maybe Bill Gates is going to come out of retirement and surprise us all? :)
Of course, the cynic in me says that this partnership is just MS poisoning the well for the Nook. I hope not, but I will definitely be watching to see what happens.
-MSC
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Re: MS = Poison Ivy
Honestly, the reason MS has had so many issues is because gates retired, if you look and the gates days, MS put out mostly good products, not perfect but alot less issues on average then since balmer took over.
part of this is the fact that balmer is a business guy whos got very little skill or understanding of tech and geeks in general.
balmer has put so many MBA's and Lawyers into the mix that the developers/designers have a hard time getting anything done.
EVERY SINGLE STEP of the process has to go past legal, and gets a market analysis, its retarded....its also why some kool projects never got past the planning stages...and why the zune was such a failure.....
In some says I feel sorry for MS and those who work there in dev/design, they are hampered at every step by people who dont really understand wtf is going on....it must be quite frustrating.
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it wasn't a deal for windows, it was a deal against android
This isn't about windows, this is a direct jab against android and also furthers their "everyone has settled with us and our supposedly valid patents" FUD claims.
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Re: it wasn't a deal for windows, it was a deal against android
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Re: it wasn't a deal for windows, it was a deal against android
I also have a Nook. It's a great little e-book reader. I use it for reading e-books in bright sunshine, and ... er, that's it, it doesn't do anything else.
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Re: This isn't about windows, this is a direct jab against android ...
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Someone at Barnes & Noble Should Ask
Barnes and Noble senior management should ask former Microsoft partners on joint ventures such as IBM, Apple and many more the question of how that worked out for them.
The thing is every answer would be nearly identical. If Microsoft is giving you a big hug its more than likely because they are positioning a knife blade to your back. They are a company with a history and a long line of repetitious pattern. If I had B&N stock I would dump it now while the price is up and before the strike.
Just calling it like I see it.
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Re: Someone at Barnes & Noble Should Ask
look at why os/2 failed, it was NOT because it was a bad OS, it was not because of the OS price, it was because IBM INSISTED on charging outrageous prices for the development kit for it, very few developers could justify the cost for a platform that was dwarfed by windows, and man just couldnt afford to buy the kit at all....
MS has always done this better then IBM and its ilk, they gave away the dev kit or make kids stupidly cheap, they foster the software dev side because they know it will in turn bolster their OS sales.
and the Apple thing, Honestly, I dont know how anybody could feel sorry for apple...or jobs for that matter...the man who bragged about stealing good ideas, then years later said he was going to destroy android because it was a stolen product......
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When a company is too big to reinvent itself and adapt to a changing market, adding more deadwood can't possible help.
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Would have been great to see B&N go through this to the end, which would have allowed all the other patent victims that MS went after to get out of their royalty agreements (as there would be no valid patent to pay royalties over anymore). Then again, maybe not, MS and their NDAs, you never know what patents they exercised against any particular manufacturer. In essence, B&N got a $300million windfall (indirectly) that is probably (I'm exaggerating. I hope) what MS has made in the last 3-4 years from extorting these manufacturers.
Kinda convenient for MS. Its too bad though, now this injustice is being allowed to persevere. Its almost like B&N is REWARDING them for bringing a patent fight to their doorstep, one that B&N looked increasingly close to winning. I guess money talks.
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A windows8 tablet, at almost half the price, entirely manageable with existing infrastructure, and utilizing similar apps as other tablets is an exciting idea.
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Re:
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Half Price
The question is going to be mostly about the apps. If there are no comparable apps on Windows 8, then the point about excitement in school districts is moot.
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Re: Half Price
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Re: Re: Half Price
B&N + Microsoft = Nook + Win8 in the future.
Same tablet, different OS, same price = Win8 Nook at half the price of high end Android tablets and iPads. Microsoft also gains retail space to sell hardware and an ecosystem to start selling content.
It isn't really rocket science.
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Re: Re: Re: Half Price -- Nope
The smartphone market has been one failure after another for MS even while Gates was keeping watch so forgive me if I'm skeptical that a MS/Nook marriage will change anything in the pad/smart phone market.
Nor do I see a lower price because, as I said, MS wants to think of itself as a premier/Tier 1 supplier of hardware and software. And, can MS sustain another division bleeding losses like the X-Box does?
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Half Price -- Nope
Even if they up the price $100, each tablet is still cheaper than a comparable iPad with the benefits of existing Windows based tools for device management.
Granted, I do not like that Microsoft will invariably raise the price, nor am I a fan of Active Directory. However, in the situation I am in now, iPads are a migraine to manage. Having a situation where the tablets are at least more manageable saves us a lot of time.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Half Price -- Nope
MS isnt stupid, they have to many lawyers and MBA's but they arent stupid in this reguard.
MS will very likely view any win8 nook as a loss leader, they will foster it along till its making them a nice profit and has gained them a good market share, then put out a new model that will again be a loss leader, just like they did with the xbox and xbox 360.
sony also has done this with th playstation line, its smart, because as time goes on, cost to make these devices drops drastically and at the same price you go from loosing money to making it.
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No Windows on Nook
Oh well. There goes that idea.
Mike is right. This is no big deal anymore.
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Ask Nokia
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Re: Ask Nokia
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Re: Re: Ask Nokia
where are the sony long term partners that haven't regretted it?
i could list many other large companies who seem to screw anybody who does business with them....
and I will say, some software partners ms has im sure are happy with ms being on top, i mean only having to develop for 1 platform and support 1 platform is easier then trying to support 100,000 different distros of linux....
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Re: Re: Ask Nokia
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Re:
the problem was they couldnt get legal and the MBA's to accept that trying to copy the ipod/itunes ecosystem was a stupid move....
I have a feeling that they wont make that mistake again.
also I owned a zune and the software sucked donkey balls.....
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Re: Re:
The product support from Microsoft, however, was so brutally insulting that I have actually given friends/family some of my own money to encourage the purchase of ipods and androids instead of windows phones. That's how pissed off MS made me. If I was ever looking for a reason to buy a Kindle, this would be it.
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Stupid ideas
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Re: Stupid ideas
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Redmond Sleeps In
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