Barnes and Noble 1999 Annual Report Download - page 19

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MULTI-CHANNEL ACCESS: DIGITAL
he electronic retailing of books is,
of course, just the cusp of the digital
revolution that will overtake our market
in the years to come. As e-publishing
and e-reading technologies are perfected
and popularized, there will be an
explosion of content in our future that
will pale in comparison with what the
Internet has so far unleashed.
Today our distribution center houses
close to one million titles on its shelves;
that’s 10 times the number we stocked
just three years ago, and vastly larger
than the inventory of any other book
vendor, including wholesalers. Our goal
is to stock every known book in print.
Our out-of-print selection alone – now
available through Barnes & Noble.com
– numbers several million.
As we continue to extend our business
from retail commerce to e-commerce to
digital commerce, we will also expand
our range of content formats to meet
the evolving preferences of customers
in all the communities we serve.
Already, we are the largest consumer
retailer of e-book hand-held devices
in the world, both through our stores
and online. Barnes & Noble.com has
recently opened an e-book superstore
featuring thousands of titles for
immediate download. As the world’s
leading bookseller, we are the partner
of choice for technology companies
looking to reach an affluent, educated
demographic. Recently, we announced
a partnership with Microsoft to
promote the Microsoft®Reader with
ClearType™, an e-book technology that
provides a much better viewing
experience, almost identical to print
on paper. As the market for this format
approaches critical mass, Barnes & Noble
will be ready on every channel.
Meanwhile, we are helping to pry
open the doors of publishing through
our investment in iUniverse.com,
the world’s largest publishing portal.
An online service that enables writers
to get work published, marketed and
distributed to a worldwide market
within 30 days, iUniverse can cost-
effectively re-release books that are
out-of-print and make available the
work of countless talented new writers.
Finally, we announced in December
our agreement with IBM to use
its print-on-demand technology and
manufacturing components in our
Barnes & Noble’s distribution center in New Jersey.
1999 ANNUAL REPORT
18
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