When it comes to e-books and e-readers, there is a good chance your mind might jump to Amazon and their Kindle devices. This isn’t to say that there aren’t other companies who have similar devices and ecosystems, it’s just that Amazon’s dominance is rather overpowering, so much so that it looks like Barnes & Noble will be calling it a day as far as their international Nook store is concerned.In an email obtained by The Digital Reader, it seems that Barnes & Noble has started to send out emails to its customers living outside of the US and the UK. It reads, “We recently announced that Barnes & Noble and Microsoft have agreed to terminate their commercial partnership. As a result, payments through your Microsoft account no longer supported.”
They also note that, “In addition, the NOOK App for Windows will from August 7, 2015 are no longer available outside the United States. This means that your NOOK content can no longer open on a Windows platform.” Now the good news is that if you have made purchases, you will be entitled to refunds, which we suppose is fair.
Is this move surprising? Given that earlier this year it was reported that the company’s Nook sales actually declined by 55%, we suppose it makes sense that the company is trying not to spread itself too thin, which is unfortunate for their international customers.
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