Book retailer company Barnes & Noble is considering spinning off their Nook e-reader unit so that they can continue to scale that business.  Barnes & Noble wants to “unlock” the value of the Nook unit.  Barnes & Noble is projecting that they will earn revenues of $7 and $7.2 billion in 2012 even though Wall Street was predicting $7.33 billion.  The losses are due to investments in the Nook business and sales of the Nook Simple Touch.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS) had recently issued the Q2 2012 earnings report and they revealed the NOOK business revenue hit $220 million. The NOOK Tablet has become Barnes & Noble’s fastest selling device to date. However the company hit a net loss of $6.6 million this past quarter.

The Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch Reader has been given a better rating than the Amazon.com Kindle by Consumer Reports. While I have not always been on the same page as Consumer Reports, I know how seriously people take their ratings.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS) has announced a new Nook 6-inch WiFi e-reader device. The $139 Nook has a touchscreen and a battery life of up to two months. This Nook uses e-Ink. This new Nook has only one button and sells for the same as the Amazon.com Kindle 6-inch WiFi version. The new Nook is available for pre-order, but will not be shipping until June 10th. [TechNewsWorld]

The Barnes & Noble Nook device has been selling by the millions, but the Nook 3G has been struggling. According to a source with Engadget, the Nook 3G will continue to sell until the stock is exhausted. And the book retail company has been encouraging retail partners not to send out any more bulk orders. The reason for the discontinuation is rumored to be because of a lack of supply not because of the lack of bulk sales.

Spring Design’s lawsuit against Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS) will go on. Spring Design filed a lawsuit against Barnes & Noble because they said the Nook electronic tablet reader was illegally copying their screen design. Spring Design said that Barnes & Noble is allegedly misappropriating trade secrets, violating breach of contract, and is competing unfairly. U.S. District Judge James Ware refused to throw out the case. Spring Design announced a lawsuit against Barnes & Noble in November 2009. The price of the Nook starts at $149. According to Forrester Research, Barnes & Noble is expecting to sell 2 million units by the end of the year. [Reuters]

Amazon.com has been given a patent for a dual-screen e-reader. Given that the Barnes & Noble Nook is a dual-display e-reader, this could mean that the two companies may get into some sort of conflict. Amazon.com filed the patent in 2006 and Amazon.com agreed not to file any corresponding foreign patents during this four year patent process. This is what the patent covers:

Multiple sources are predicting that the Barnes & Noble Nook will be arriving in retail stores on April 18th. Engadget was sent a screen shot from Best Buy’s inventory system saying that the In Stock Date is 04-18-2010. Below is the screenshot. [Engadget]