B&N Experiences Heavy Demand for Nook
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It seems all the buzz around the Nook has manifested into a significant level of demand for B&N’s e-book reader. The Nook is perhaps the only e-book reader that can go toe to toe against Amazon Kindle and even beat it in some areas. B&N may have created a killer gadget, but it hasn’t been able to avoid the issues that Amazon had to deal with when it first released Amazon Kindle. If you remember, a lot of early adopters had to wait months to get their hands on Amazon Kindle 1. While the wait for B&N Nook won’t be that bad, chances are a lot of people won’t be able to get one in the next few weeks.
If you happen to have ordered your Nook a while ago, you can expect it to be shipped to you on November 30th. But for new orders, B&N’s won’t be shipping orders by December 11th. So you have got to wait about a month to get your Nook (if you order it today). I would expect the demand to reach a higher level as we get closer to the end of the holiday season. e-book readers have always made great gifts, and Nook is the e-book reader of the hour at this point.
This delay could potentially give Amazon a chance to capitalize and grab sales from under B&N’s nose. It depends how B&N deals with the demand. If the demand level is too high to justify yet another delay in the near future, Amazon can easily capitalize by yet another Kindle promotion or price drop. There are many people who are genuinely interested in owning a Nook, but at the same time there are consumers out there who are looking for a great gift or an e-book reader. Amazon can go after those with a special promotion for the holiday season.
What’d be more interesting to see is the glitches that early adopters will have to deal with. Amazon also had to deal with those as many people returned their defective Kindles in those early days. Nook may look good on the paper, but let’s not forget that it’s a first generation gadget, so it’d be surprising if it didn’t have any software issues. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t pick up a Nook. Just don’t be surprised if you face tiny software glitches on your Nook. If you haven’t ordered your Nook by now, you’ll have a month to think about it.
