The Members Forum

The Nook Color has turned out to be a major hit for Barnes & Noble as many critics would go so far as to dub the e-book reader as the best Android tablet currently available. It seems that part of that success could be attributed to how popular the device has been with women.

According to The New York Times, the success of the Nook Color has largely stemmed from digital magazine purchases. The majority of those magazine sales were female-focused titles such as Cosmopolitan and Women’s Health. Liz  Schimel, executive vice president for digital media for Meredith publications, told the NYT:

We didn’t really know what to expect…We regarded it as sort of a test. Would the Nook magazine experience resonate with consumers? We were extremely pleasantly surprised. I think Barnes & Noble has been very smart about creating a whole brand and a campaign that’s really targeted at their core mass audience which overlaps nicely with our audience.

As both a woman and a Nook Color owner, this doesn’t surprise me much and I’m willing to go along with the NYT report. Here are five simple reasons why:

1. Advertising. Since the Nook Color was introduced in October, Barnes & Noble has been quick to position it as the choice device for reading digital media. And since that time, the Nook Color has been repeatedly advertised as depicting primarily women’s related magazines (such as Elle and Marie Claire) open on the screen. Even if a reader picks up the print version of one of these women’s magazines, the Nook Color tends to be the centerpiece example in ads (in front of the Apple iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab) for reading the particular magazine on a tablet

ZDnet has the details HERE!