Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color has been on the market for around seven months now, and although it hasn’t managed to make a huge splash, it has generated some noticeable ripples. The lost-cost device, sporting an Android core with a custom Nook skin on top, has become a hackers favourite due to its uncomplicated, quality components and cheap price.
Now the 7″ device has found another market to tap into – females. A recent report in the New York Times has found that subscriptions to female-orientated magazines are seeing much higher uptake on the device than on the iPad, even though Apple’s device has sold many times more units.
Across the board women’s magazine publishers are seeing higher adoption rates on the Nook Color than on Amazon’s Kindle or Apple’s iPad. Publisher of Women’s Health and Runner’s World, Rodale Inc., is selling about five times as many subscriptions through the Nook as it is single issues on Apple’s platform.
Likewise, Hearst, who publish Cosmopolitan, say they are seeing tens of thousands of subscriptions per month of Barnes and Noble’s device.
This is in stark contrast to the publishing situation on the iPad, which seems to be faltering somewhat. Figures released detailing subscription rates last year showed after an initial period of excitement surrounding the tablet’s launch subscriber rates dropped of substantially, and just recently Rupert Murdoch’s The Daily has shown signs of being somewhat stillborn.
As the NYTimes piece notes, this could be a case of incredibly astute targeting by Barnes & Noble. The vast majority of their advertising has been appealing to women, who are three times more likely to purchase books than men, and seem to be put off by the size and complexity of other tablet devices. The Nook Color is also a more appealing device for consuming magazine content than Amazon’s Kindle due to its full colour screen and touchscreen.
Barnes & Noble is currently the subject of a buy-out offer from Liberty Media, who seem keen to get a bargain price for the book retailer. We’re sure the release of these figures is purely coincidental.
