Failing to keep up with the demand for its $259-priced e-book reader Nook, Barnes & Noble (B&N) said on Monday that out of the prospective Nook buyers who were promised the device on or before December 24, a “very small percentage” may not receive the e-reader on time; and that they would receive $100 consolation gift certificates.

Though B&N spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating said in a recent e-mail that most of the pre-ordered Nooks will be delivered on time, Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey, who has estimated that B&N has taken orders for almost 50,000 Nooks for delivery by the holidays, opined that the company is likely to fall short of the shipping by 2-4 percent.

As a result, the company’s inability to deliver all the devices within the earlier promised time will bring about the handing out of gift certificates of between $100,000 and $200,000.

Further, with the B&N site confirming that the supply of the device is so ‘thin’ that the devices which being ordered now will ship only by February 1, McQuivey said that the company’s failure to meet consumer demand evidently hints that that the device was rushed to market.

While B&N is citing ‘unexpected demand’ as the reason behind its inability to deliver the Nooks in time, McQuivey said that people will largely perceive “that they (B&N) don’t have their act together.”