As the rush to grab demonstrated, consumers are hungry for inexpensive tablets. Archos and ViewSonic already offer sub-$200 Android tablets and the pressure is on bigger names to push their prices down. Lenovo has already it will offer a 7-inch tablet to compete around a similar price point.

"The consumer proposition will have to be carefully managed as e-book readers and tablets converge into a single category in the not too distant future," says Peter King with Strategy Analytics.

In other words, consumers will begin to demand devices that can do it all, and recently all eyes have been closely watching Amazon to see if they'll be able to offer exactly that. The company is expected to step up its tablet game with some type of tablet and Kindle hybrid device. The most recent reports expect some sort of Amazon tablet running a custom skin on top of Android to become available right after Thanksgiving.

"If Amazon launches a tablet at a sub-$300 price point -- assuming it has enough supply to meet demand -- we see Amazon selling 3-5 million tablets in Q4 alone," says Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps.

The operative word in that sentence for Barnes & Noble is "If" -- the Amazon tablet still isn't official, and neither is the upcoming iPad3. For that matter, there's been reports that a would start shipping this month, but we haven't seen that yet either. Whether it will be ready to ship when the other Nooks hit Radio Shack shelves in two weeks remains to be seen, but regardless, expanding into more stores could give the Nook--or Nook 2-- a nice boost ahead of the holidays.