mike cane, you excerpted the wrong bit of the original article:

• Create a first rate storefront+reader on Android and the web.

• Shift more resources into the iOS app and make it better than anybody else’s.

• Perform a series of commerce-oriented experiments, e.g. subscriptions, bundling, in-book payments, etc.

The bit you quoted and respond to is what he said other people's advice was.

Note the sentence AFTER those bullet points: "Those are all good but I’d argue that doing this wouldn’t solve B&N’s problem in the long term."

The actual advice was to exit the app business entirely:

• Discontinue the tablets.

• Milk the eink cow until it topples over.

• Make an awesome storefront.

• Discontinue the reading app and license somebody else’s.