Barnes & Noble posted a way-worse-than-expected first quarter loss of $62.5 million yesterday. At this time last year, they posted a $12.3 million profit. It’s a rough week for B&N; according to Daily Finance, they’re also sending letters to shareholders urging them to resist a proxy takeover. (The letter is here.)
At the same time, Amazon says that their new, cheaper Kindles are the fastest-selling Kindles ever and “the best-selling products on Amazon.com.” However, they continue to refuse to release sales figures for Kindles, which makes the press release less celebratory than it could be.
Ok, I’ll bite: Amazon has a massive first-mover advantage in the e-books market. Keeping quiet on their sales numbers is advantageous regardless of how much money they’re making. Google pursued this strategy in their pre-IPO days, banking massive (secret) profits from online advertising before the general business culture realized just how much money could be made.
Or Amazon is pursuing a failed strategy, and doesn’t want anyone to know about it. I kind of doubt we’d see a third-generation Kindle if that were the case, though.