Barnes & Noble announced that, starting on the 24^th of October, the Nook eReader will be available for purchase in 2,500 Walmart stores, and Walmart’s website.  The timing of the offer couldn’t have been more appropriate, considering the fact that the holiday season is coming nearer.

The eReader is a very popular gadget among adults.  According to statistics carried out by Harris Interactive, the number of eReader users will increase considerably in the next few months, especially with new customers.

The Nook eReader will offer customers the possibility to buy more than 1 million titles, most of them for the price of 9.99$ or less, along with half a million free titles.

eReaders are taking the publishing industry by storm.  The Nook is a little behind some of its competitors, such as the Apple iPad and iPhone, as well as the Amazon Kindle. Borders also had a product launch this week, targeting publishers and content creators directly, following B&N’s own publisher tools product launch.

The iPad, a more direct competitor in the eReader market, has also been expanding its retail partners leading up to this holiday shopping season, and will be available at both Walmart and Target.

Amazon’s also been rapidly updating the Kindle, launching various versions of the eReader application on multiple devices (such as the Android) as well.