As was confirmed by the company on Sunday, Barnes & Noble Inc. is delaying the shipment of its latest and eagerly awaited e-reader, Nook, to stores as the company is striving to deliver devices which have been pre-ordered before the holidays roll in.

"We expect to have them in our highest-volume stores on December 7th and in a very limited number", Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating said. Earlier, the company had hoped that a limited number of units would reach some of the stores around November 30, but that has been negated now.

The Nook electronic reader was launched by B&N in late October, and now the firm's focus is to ensure that all the customers who had pre-ordered the device, i. e., placed an order before November 20, get it delivered in time. The Nook is priced at $259.

Experts have estimated that e-readers would be the current season's most preferred gifts and will sell like hot cakes. In such a scenario, it seems unfortunate for B&N to be running out the Nook. A similar announcement was earlier made by Sony Corp, with regards to its Daily Edition e-reader.

The development, however, seems to have come as a good news for Amazon and its Kindle e-reader. Currently, Amazon holds the highest sales share of the e-reader market, and if its rivals do not step with the production and release into stores soon, this might not change for a very long time.