Nookin’ pa Nub: Where is Barnes and Noble’s eBook Reader?

I came across this article today and I can’t help but think that Barnes and Noble didn’t think out a launch plan for the eBook reader (eReader, EBook, whatever.  Moving on) aka the nook.  As a reader, you can decide for yourself whether the writer slanted the story for or against B&N.  Personally, I thought it was a fair assessment. 

The trouble is that B&N’s message is not carrying above the noise that is generated by folks looking to make a story out of a slipped deadline during the holiday shopping season.  What compounds the situation, in my opinion, is how loud they were trumpeting the nook as the usurper to the crown held by Amazon.com’s Kindle.  The nook promises to be everything the Kindle is not: extensible, include a dynamic touchscreen interface, and color.  Wrap that up with some of the more important features of the Kindle (wireless delivery and ease of purchasing books from arguably one of the world’s largest booksellers) and you’ve got a winner.  Heck, I own a Kindle, love it, and I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t dying to get my hands on a nook.

The tragedy is not that B&N is missing their first deadline with the product: I’m not surprised given that they’re using a manufacturer that they’ve never partnered with for something this innovative and complex.  It’s also not the way that they are backordered:  That’s expected in a competitive market, where the current leader has blazed a path that is all too easy to follow given some of the deficiencies that they have. 

The tragedy (and Amazon.com’s gain) is that they have this perfect storm of changing expectations that they’re throwing at customers and are not making sure that reviewers are getting the correct messages.  The impression that I got several months ago when I first heard about the nook indicated that they’d be available for Christmas, then there were back orders, now they’ve missing their initial run. 

It’s a costly lesson to learn, but B&N is going to have a long winter while they figure out how to make back the investment for the initial run of the devices.