Barnes & Noble NOOK holiday sales 'fell short of expectations'

While there seemed to be plenty of Kindle Fire and Samsung Galaxy Tab tablets purchased during the holidays, sales of NOOK tablets "fell short of expectations," according to Barnes & Noble.

In a statement, William Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble said that while "NOOK device sales got off to a good start over the Black Friday period," they then faltered, and "fell short of expectations for the balance of holiday."

"We are examining the root cause of the December shortfall in sales, and will adjust our strategies accordingly going forward," said Lynch.

During the nine-week holiday period, Barnes and Noble's digital business -- which include the NOOK readers and tablets, digital content, and accessories -- saw revenues of $311 million, a decrease of 12.6 percent compared to the same period last year.

NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ tablets reviews have been positive, but the devices  have are in the unfortunate position of being sandwiched between the twin juggernauts of Apple's iPad and Amazon's Kindle Fire.

See also: Best Android-powered tablets (December 2012 edition)

To make matters worse, the market is being further eroded by tablets from the likes of Samsung, and even Microsoft. The tablet and e-reader market is a very crowded one, and despite making what it calls "significant investments over the past three years building the valuable NOOK digital retailing platform," Barnes & Noble has found it hard to maintain traction during the all-important holiday period.

While the NOOK failed to take advantage of the holiday season, a report says the success experienced by the Kindle Fire and Samsung Galaxy Tab managed to shave over 7 percentage points off the iPad's Web usage share following Christmas day as people started to browse the web with their new devices.

Image source: Barnes & Noble.