B&N Dropping out of Tablet Market

I think we all saw the writing on the wall when B&N started with the massive discounts on the Nook HD and HD+, but now it is official: they will continue selling existing inventory "at amazing prices through the holiday" (or until they run out) and will then concentrate on their eInk readers (the Simple Touch and Glow) and Apps (which leaves those on computers prior to Windows 8 out in the cold, as well; if you read on your PC, be sure to save your install file for the Nook or Nookstudy application, somewhere). Here's the press release (which also talks about how much they've lost in hardware business). If you've been wanting a tablet, the Nook HD/HD+ isn't a bad choice, especially at the prices they have been charging recently.

Those with Nook libraries should be fine for now and B&N says they will be coming out with new eInk readers in the future, as well as continuing their reader Apps on various platforms. If you own stock in the company, that's taken a big hit today and I suspect the resale value of the nook tablets may take a bit of hit, as well (it isn't that high on most electronics, anyway, though). B&N says they will continue to create Nook Apps, as well, but I don't see the point (unless they allow them to run on any tablet that can access the Google Play store, which would free the apps I have at B&N, now).

I just hope that they continue with their read-in-store program (which was broken, yet again, when I went to the store Sunday, after a 2 week lapse; yet, I was told my time for the day was up as soon as I arrived and given the usual lame (and incorrect) advice that maybe I'd been there the night before or perhaps a particular book had a time limit ... yet the several books I tried all refused to work), although I suspect it may eventually disappear as well (it stopped working entirely on the original nook, long before I decided to just sell it, along with the nook Color I replaced).