500,000 Nooks to be shipped by March 2010

30th December, 2009 by adina
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About half a million Nook readers are expected to reach the United States by March next year, according to Southeast Asian sources. Barnes & Noble has often said it has had an overwhelming demand and some sources report about 60,000 Nooks shipping in 2009 and about 500,000 in total by March next year. This number is considered to be above the company’s forecast. Foxconn is ready to increase its production to help Barnes & Noble maintain the rhythm of the shipping.

The more concrete information has appeared when Barnes & Noble has announced its customers that new online orders for the Nook dual-screen reader would not ship until February 1st, i.e. about two months after the shipping of the first devices. The customers who have pre-ordered a dual-screen reader early enough have been promised to receive a $100 gift certificate if the reader was not shipped before Christmas.

Such important figures are very promising for competing Amazon’s Kindle readers, as shipment for the original 2007 device is estimated to about 400,000 units during a whole year. Barnes & Noble’s technical advantages were the secondary touchscreen and Wi-Fi, but there was also a commercial advantage, as its retail bookstores allow customers to try the reader themselves, compared to the Kindle, which is only online.

These early sales are very important for Barnes & Noble, as the company may face the competition of Apple’s tablet in late January, the latter being supposed to have a strong e-book feature. Yair Reiner, an Oppenheimer analyst, has mentioned sources revealing that Apple’s suppliers could ship about three million tablets quarterly, which means that Barnes & Noble’s sales figures could appear less significant than they seem now.


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