Nook Sold Out, Amazon Pushing

Barnes & Noble Nook is sold out again. If you happen to have heard of the device recently, don’t even think of getting your hands on one anytime soon, unless you ordered your Nook early. Nook eBook Reader has certainly got the looks and the momentum these days. Amazon Kindle has been known as an ugly gadget for a couple of years now, and even though Amazon has made a major design upgrade, the latest generation Kindle’s look and feel is not something to write home about. Nook’s momentum in the e-book market shows that people are finally getting it when it comes e-book readers. As more people start to realize the benefits of owning an e-book reader, more players will enter the market, and the industry will gradually move to the next level.

Here is what B&N had to say about Nook:

Nook continues to be the fastest-selling product at Barnes & Noble, and pre-orders have continued to exceed our expectation. All customers ordering a Nook beginning today, November 20, should expect their devices to ship beginning the week of January 4, 2010.

In the past, I have talked about how companies such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble miss the boat when they don’t forecast demand properly. But underestimating demand, they leave money on the table when they could be selling even more units during the holiday season. But why is Nook so popular? It’s tough to say. For starters, we still don’t have any official numbers to figure out how the Nook stacks up against Amazon Kindle. B&N has certainly done a great job designing Nook and marketing it all over the web, but is Nook as popular as a top netbook? Perhaps not. We won’t be seeing iPod-like numbers with Nook or Kindle 3.0, which means the industry still has ways to go to reach its full potential.

It’s interesting to note that Amazon has been pushing Kindle hard on its homepage as well. Of course, it’s easy to declare Kindle the king of the gadget world when Amazon doesn’t sell Nook or market other gadgets as extensively as it does Kindle. So these lists could be a bit misleading. Nook may be a more flashy device but it’s not a revolutionary jump from Kindle. Amazon Kindle still has Nook’s number in many areas. Nook just happens to have a better design, a more intuitive interface, a few innovative features (Lend Me), and the backing of B&N. But it’s certainly not a revolutionary upgrade to Kindle.

Amazon should learn its lesson from B&N by looking at B&N’s strategy with Nook. You can’t get comfortable at the top when you have a huge lead over your current competitors. There is always room for a third party to come in and disrupt your market. Kindle 3 has to deliver, and it has to deliver big. We may see color screen, a software development kit, and a brand new design with new Kindles. Amazon’s brand name has been partly responsible for Amazon Kindle’s success. It’s time for Amazon to start pushing a Kindle that fits its brand image. Amazon is known as one of the most innovative companies in the world. It’s about time Amazon started acting like it.