Barnes & Noble abandons Nook Tablet operation

And now some news that could see Amazon employees engaging in some serious fist pumping. US book giant Barnes & Noble is calling it quits on its Nook tablet operations.

The news comes after the company posted less than stellar quarterly results. According to BGR, revenue was down 7.4% to US$1.3-billion and the company doubled its net loss to -US$118.6-million. The Nook side of the business took a particularly big hit, with revenue falling 34% year-on-year to US$108-million, resulting in a net loss of US$177-million.

Those kind of numbers don’t exactly scream “viable business option”, so Barnes & Noble is probably doing the sensible thing by killing the Nook’s tablet operation. Instead it says it will rely ”partnership model for manufacturing in the competitive color tablet market” with third-party manufacturers building tablets that run Nook software. It will however continue building eReaders in-house.

“The company plans to significantly reduce losses in the NOOK segment by limiting risks associated with manufacturing,” Barnes & Noble said in a press release. “Going forward, the company intends to continue to design eReading devices and reading platforms, while creating a partnership model for manufacturing in the competitive color tablet market. Thus, the widely popular lines of Simple Touch™ and Glowlight™ products will continue to be developed in house, and the company’s tablet line will be co-branded with yet to be announced third party manufacturers of consumer electronics products. At the same time, the company intends to continue to build its digital catalog, adding thousands of eBooks every week, and launching new NOOK Apps.”