According to the Wall Street Journal demand is so strong that pre-orders won’t ship until December 11. Originally the device was to ship on November 30, and then to the next tier of customers on December 7 which has not been moved to the 11th.
The Journal reports B&N as saying that demand has been much stronger than their expectations. This is the same thing that happened at the initial release of the Kindle when Amazon underestimated the popularity of the unit.
Saw a horrible TV ad for an e-book reader the other day, and was thinking, “Oh please, let this not be for the Nook! They won’t get a single order!”
Fortunately, it was an ad for the Kindle.
Or, the manufacturing yield is lower than expected for this brand new product, which isn’t beyond the realm of possibility.