Barnes & Noble Hoping to Sell a Ton of Nook Tablets Over Holidays

Barnes & Noble has high hopes for its new Nook Tablet this holiday season. So high, in fact, that it has reportedly raised orders for the device.

Upstream component suppliers tell industry trade mag Digitimes that they estimate Barnes & Noble has shipped (not sold) about one million Nooks since the tablet’s mid-November debut.

That’s about 200,000 more than the company was expected to push into the channel before year’s end. A significant increase. The reason for it? Strong sales in North America over Thanksgiving, which kicked off the holiday shopping season.

That bodes well for the Nook Tablet, which Barnes & Noble said last week is already its fastest-selling Nook device to date. It’s also great news for the company’s growing Nook business. According to Barnes & Noble’s second-quarter earnings, the value of that business — which includes not just the devices themselves but their content and accessories as well — hit $220 million during the period, an 85 percent increase.