Barnes & Noble Seeing Heavy Demand for Nook E-Book Reader

When Barnes & Noble unveiled its electronic book reader last month, it said the Nook was scheduled for a late November release. The company is apparently going to make that deadline -- just barely -- but many of those who want this accessory are going to have to wait until well into December to get it.

Those who have already pre-ordered the Nook on this retailer's website have been told their package will be shipped on Nov. 30. However, those placing pre-orders now are bring told that they won't get it until until the second week in December.

Many potential customers are delaying putting in an order until they see this e-book reader in person. Barnes & Noble stores are reportedly going to have demonstration units on the last day of this month, but no units to sell.  At this point, it's not clear if B&N stores will have more than demo units this year; all sales may have to happen on the Web.

Those who would like to give the Nook as a Christmas present will apparently have to seriously consider buying it unseen, as devices pre-ordered next month might not ship until too late.

The cost is $260, and pre-orders can be placed now on B&N's website.

An Overview of the Barnes & Noble Nook
The Nook will be a direct competitor to Amazon.com's Kindle. It will differentiate itself by allowing users to lend books and connect to Wi-Fi networks.

This device will have 6-inch, grayscale E-Ink screen for displaying the contents of books, newspapers, and magazines, and below that will be a smaller color touchscreen that will be used as a keyboard and to perform other actions.

Users will be able to purchase and download e-books directly on the Nook, either over a Wi-Fi connection or over AT&T's 3G network. Those who want to access hotspots in B&N stores will be able to do so for free.

E-books will be in eReader, the open ePub standard, or Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format, and users will be able to move files onto this reader -- they don't have to come from B&N.

This device will have 2 GB of internal storage -- that's room for about 1,500 books -- plus it will have a microSD card slot for additional capacity.

The most unusual feature of the Nook will be the ability to "lend" books; users will be able to loan a text to one of their friends for up to 14 days for no charge. The receiver must have either a Nook or a compatible device -- iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm, PC, etc. -- with the free B&N eReader software installed.

Physically, the Nook is going to be 7.7 inches by 4.9 inches by 0.5 inches (196 mm by 126 mm by 13 mm). It will weigh 11.2 ounces (317 g).

Source: Barnes & Noble Book Clubs Forum

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