By Leena Rao
The holiday season appears to have treated Barnes & Noble (BKS) 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 more 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.
