Either the Nook is set to become more popular than the Kindle or Barnes & Noble is having very serious trouble with manufacturing the device. This morning the bookseller changed the next ship date available for its ereader to January 15th, up from January 11th.

For those of you who have already pre-ordered, it’s no big deal. Existing ship dates should not be effected. Anything from here forward, though, will be subject to the new date. It’s not terribly unsettling news, but it does make you wonder just what sort of further delays to expect. People are already waiting on pre-orders that were placed shortly after the device was announced.

By far the worst part, if you were hoping to catch a Nook in stores, is that no in-store purchases will be available. Barnes & Noble has committed itself to fulfilling the pre-orders that have already been placed. How very…noble.

If you didn’t pre-order your Nook, you won’t be seeing a holiday arrival. Barnes & Noble announced today that it had sold through the initial order and wouldn’t have more before the holidays are out.

“While we increased production based on the high consumer interest, we’ve sold out of our initial Nook allotment available for delivery before the holidays,” said a company statement. It’s not a huge delay – any order placed from today forward will be filled on January 4th. Anyone who pre-orders up to that date will receive a holiday certificate. Sometimes those are the best gifts. Right when you thought the festivities were over there’s a package on your doorstep.

B&N announced the delay after Sony did the same for its “Daily Edition” ereader yesterday. Despite the high price of ebooks and still limited functionality, ereaders seem to be one of the hottest items on the world’s gift list. Amazon’s Kindle and Kindle DX are both in stock and ship immediately.

Source: Reuters