It’s not fun being the coolest kid in town as Barnes & Noble just found out. Its hot dual-screen Nook ebook reader was supposed to ship on November 30th, but that’s not going to happen. Sorry. The good news is that buyers should still get it before Christmas though.
B&N is saying that the delay was caused by higher than expected sales numbers and the new ship date is December 11. The Nook is just more popular that B&N had thought it would be and you can totally understand why. It comes sporting a 3G wireless connection like the Kindle, the same price as the Kindle, but also the two screens and an equally vast eBook store. The Nook is where it’s at, kids.
Amazon had better have something good cooking for the holiday season – this is really going to eat their breakfast (if not their lunch) if they don’t release something a little sexier for the consumer market. Even being able to get a Kindle in another color might suffice. It worked for Apple…
Means nothing. Given that we don’t know what B&N’s original “expected” sales number is. They could be very conservative at say 2,000 units, or pie in the sky at 1m units. Bottom line we have nothing to objectively judge pre-order sales by.
Also, BN hasn’t announced book pricing, and whether they intend to be more in line with Amazon pricing or the Sony eBookstore. Will there be a premium on loanable books? Will enough publishers allow loaning to make it a worthwhile feature, or will it essentially be DOA like the talking feature on the Kindle.
Finally, in light of the sky high prices on the secondary market for Kindles when they first shipped, we don’t know how many “entrepreneurers” pre-ordered in hopes of ebaying for big bucks. If that doesn’t happen those units go back to BN.
I like the Nook, but I don’t think it’s helpful to consumers to be cheerleading an unreviewed, incomplete product (BN is still holding details back) before it ships.
>>Also, BN hasn’t announced book pricing, and >>whether they intend to be more in line with >>Amazon pricing or the Sony eBookstore.
We’ll see on everything else, but BN already has a bookstore, and their prices are mostly in line with Sony’s, above Amazon, but there will be lots of lock-in deals (if you’re a “member” of the BN store… which, if you have a Nook, why wouldn’t you be?)
Lame, just like Irex we promise a delivery date and keep missing them. I ordered one early on day one so hopefully I will now get it at the new “Promise” date.
Not biting if I can’t buy an ebook using a BN gift card!!!
Looks interesting and I’d buy it if it did a few other things, like minimum web surfing. Personally I am fine with the iPhone — with Stanza and its many features, like a “night mode” and selectable font sizes/modes I find I am as cool with that as I need to be. Reading in bed on a cold night without even a book is quite fun.
I think the nook is going to be a major player in the ebook reader arena – I just hope they can ship before the holidays. There’s a nice ebook reader review site at: ebookreader.compare2save.net
the ship date that b&n confirmed had changed was for *new* preorders, existing preorders are still expected to ship on the original promised date.