William Lynch has submitted his resignation from the job of the chief executive officer of Barnes & Noble after the company failed to attract customers in the tablet market.

The resignation was effective immediately and the company will now look for a new leader to revive its business. According to estimates, the company's Nook digital business recorded doubles losses during the quarter till April
27 compared to the same period in the previous year. The company has been successful in selling e-books but is facing difficulties in the hardware business.

Mr. Lynch had taken up the charge of the company in 2010 after heading the company's website division. His strategy was to focus on emerging digital books business and developing a family of dedicated Nook digital devices that included tablet computers. Barnes & Noble has been struggling to attract customers in the tablet market which is crowded with much larger rivals like Apple, Amazon, Samsung and Google. Analysts say that his resignation would mean that the company would now focus less on tis hardware business and more on its core e-book business.

The shares of the company fell 4.6 per cent in after-hours trading resulting in its market value falling below the $1 billion mark.