Will Barnes and Noble Be Around In Five Years?

Is there a future for a Nook-nicked Barnes & Noble? The retailer’s plan to stop making its Nook color tablets revived questions about the long-term viability of the last remaining national bookseller that’s been feverishly trying to reinvent itself amid game changing Amazon.com AMZN +0.35%.

Yes, the news that Barnes & Noble will turn over the production of its color — versus its black-and-white — Nook to a yet-to-be-named third party player signals that the chain has lost the tablet wars to Amazon’s Kindle and the Apple AAPL +1.39% iPad.