B&N said today that strong device sales helped drive eBook content sales that have significantly exceeded forecasts. Barnes & Noble.com comparable sales increased 78% compared to last year’s holiday selling season. The company’s CEO William Lynch said that 60% of NOOKcolor owners are new customers of the Barnes & Noble digital bookstore. And total sales at Barnes & Noble.com came in at $228.5 million, an increase of 67% as compared to the period a year ago.
Amazon also reported record sales for Nook’s competitor, the Kindle, stating that the Kindle 3 is now the best selling Amazon product of all-time. Of course, the missing information in both Amazon and B&N’s released are the number of devices actually sold during the holiday period, which both companies have declined to release.

Authors: Leena Rao