Barnes & Noble’s NOOK digital offerings have not been winners for the company — rather, far to the contrary. From the provision of its own Android-based hardware (before having Samsung build some) to the locked down ecosystem of the company’s content stores, it just didn’t add up for consumers to flock over from the Kindle.

NOOK-related losses, though, have been trailing off recently, down 62 percent this past quarter ending January 30. CEO Ron Boire said in a press release accompanying the earnings report that he was “pleased with the progress that has been made to reduce NOOK losses” and that priority remained with curtailing “Retail and NOOK expenses.”

How about dropping them down to zero?

In addition to the closure and opening of retail stores, Barnes & Noble also announced during its earnings call the ending of NOOK device sales and its NOOK Video, NOOK App Store and UK NOOK Store. It may mark the beginning of the end of NOOK as we know it in favor of a single, unified and possibly more open Barnes & Noble digital experience.

Barnes & Noble saw an overall decline in sales of 1.2 percent to $1.4 billion, in line with market estimates. But one analyst from Gabelli & Co. said that “what Wall Street really wants to see is for the NOOK to disappear.”

Source: Wall Street Journal, Barnes & Noble

Via: The Digital Reader