Sony's newest electronic reader, the Daily Edition, started taking pre-orders today, but with a caveat. The company said pre-orders will ship Dec. 18 thru Jan. 8, meaning some orders may not make it in time for the holidays. That could be a problem, given the hype around e-readers this holiday season.

Amazon.com is aggressively marketing its Kindles ahead of the holidays, and Barnes & Noble is promising that its new Nook reader will ship in time for Christmas. There are a bunch of other reading devices jumping in, or planning to jump into, the market.

The latest — and biggest — device in Sony's new e-reader lineup, the $399 Daily Edition sports a 7-inch display, touch screen navigation and 3G wireless for downloading books and other material. Sony has two other readers on the market now, the $199 Pocket Edition and $299 Touch Edition.

Like Amazon with the Kindle DX, Sony is positioning the larger screen Daily Edition as a device for reading newspapers and magazines. Steve Haber, president of Sony's digital reading division, told TechFlash during a swing through Seattle earlier this week that the company will announce content partners for the Daily Edition in December.

Haber had some interesting things to say about the electronic book market, including that Sony's $9.99 pricing for digital new release and bestselling titles — a standard set by Amazon — is "not profitable." Read the full interview here.

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