Barnes & Noble today reported its financial results for the third quarter of fiscal 2012, which ended Jan 28.  In a continuation of recent trends, B&N’s online business continues to grow fast (32% over last year during the 3rd qtr), while sales at the physical stores only grew 2%.  Earnings for the quarter would have been almost flat except for the impact of deferred income from textbook rentals.  Barnes & Noble College is seeing increased adoption of textbook rentals and this revenue is deferred over the life of the rental term rather than being recorded when the sale is initiated.  The sales of paper books in stores increased more than 4% over last year — I suspect this may be attributable to the demise of Borders. 

B&N also announced the launch of a new 8GB version of the Nook Tablet that is priced at 9 and includes all of the features of the 16GB model except for the amount of built-in memory.  5GB of the new Tablet’s 8GB memory can be used for content, but 1GB of this is reserved for Nook Store content.  B&N now has a Tablet that price matches the Kindle Fire.  The Nook Color’s price has been reduced to 9.

There is also a new software update for the Nook Tablet.  Version 1.4.2 appears to be a minor bug-squashing update that  “provides minor system enhancements.”

Possibly Related Posts:

• B&N announces Nook Tablet, lowers NC and Nook ST prices
• Amazon releases Q2 2011 financials
• Barnes & Noble reports record sales
• Barnes & Noble reports latest financial results
• Barnes & Noble Reports Fiscal 2011 Q1 Results

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