Amazon Kindle Sets New Sales Record; Nook, Daily Edition Reader Are No Where In Sight

Amazon declined to release Kindle unit sales figures, but the Seattle-based company said this has been its best sales month ever for the popular e-reading device, and that it's also the most wished for, most gifted and bestselling product across all categories on Amazon.com.

"We're seeing lots of people buying from one to a handful of Kindles as gifts for friends or family, as well as many businesses and other organizations buying Kindles in large quantities for their employees or customers," said Ian Freed, vice president of Amazon Kindle for Amazon.

Amazon's shares were up $1.96 or 1.5 percent in trading Monday morning.

In addition, Amazon may get a Kindle boost after Barnes & Noble and Sony said their new e-readers, the Nook and the Daily Edition Reader, respectively, are likely sold out online for pre-holiday delivery. Sony Corp. said earlier this month that it can't guarantee delivery of the Reader in time for the holidays.

Yesterday, Barnes & Noble said it is delaying in-store availability of its Nook e-reading device by a week. The new date for in-store availability is Dec. 7. The announcement comes about 10 days after the bookseller announced that it has sold out of its initial Nook allotment for online sales for delivery before the holidays.

Now, anyone who orders the Nook online should expect their devices to ship beginning the week of January 4, 2010. The company said it will offer "special holiday certificates" to customers giving a nook as a gift for the holidays.

"We continue to ramp up Nook supply to meet the demand in the New Year. We're committed to providing timely updates to our customers on expected Nook availability and will do so through in-store, online and our direct-to-customer communications throughout the holiday season," the company wrote on its Web site.

While the Kindle is still listed in stock on Amazon.com, and it is listed as the No. 1 seller in Electronics, the Nook was not one of BN.com's 30 most popular search words Monday morning, according to a search tool on the company's Web site.