Barnes & Noble has quietly delayed shipments of the Nook a week further into January, to Jan. 11, according to its Web site.
This isn’t good news for the Nook, which has essentially ceded the holiday selling season to the Amazon Kindle, even though it’s feature set puts it on par or arguably ahead of Amazon’s own e-reader. Lance Ulanoff, our prolific editor-in-chief, puts forward seven great reasons why e-readers will make terrific holiday gifts.
Arguably, though, the three most popular e-readers are the Nook and the Sony Reader, as well as the Kindle. But a note on the Reader Web site notes that the latest $399 Reader Daily Edition will begin shipping on Dec. 18, dangerously close to Christmas and missing most of Hanukkah; Sony already warned in November that the devices would sell on a first-come, first-serve basis.The $299 Reader Touch Edition will ship on Dec. 8, however, indicating that there are many more in stock.
Can we jump to the conclusion that the Kindle has already “won” the holiday season? Based on Amazon’s own sales reports, the conventional wisdom is heading in that direction. The gift certificates that Barnes & Noble are providing in place of Nooks only offer a minute or two of reading by a warm fire. The Kindle offers far, far, more.
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