App sales plummeting for the Nook

A little over two years ago when I first began selling Android apps, the Barnes and Noble Nook was a powerful player. While this store did not get the same attention as Google Play and Amazon’s App Store, for many months I had more sales through the Nook Bookstore then the other two combined. This came as a bit of a surprise, but has certainly not lasted.

Once accounting for over 70% of Android app sales for me, the number has been on a long term downward trajectory and has been below 10% for most of 2014. The below chart shows the percentage of Android sales of Ebscer apps through the Nook Bookstore.

NookChart

A few factors have contributed to this. First, the Nook (while often updated) has not kept pace with the other tablets on the market. More importantly Barnes and Noble has mostly given up on their platform, choosing the bundle Google Play on some of their newer devices, and have recently just launched the confusingly named “Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook” as they try to get out of the electronics business altogether.

However, if you are still interested in buying some apps for your Nook visit barnesandnoble.com/s/ebscer.