The battle for the 7-inch tablet has just gotten more exciting. Barnes & Noble hopes to cool the blistering hot sales of Amazon’s Kindle Fire by releasing a version of the NOOK Tablet priced at $199.
B&N announced today that they are offering a $199 version of their popular NOOK Tablet. The $199 version will have half the storage space (8GB) and half the RAM (512MB) of the $249 model. The 8GB NOOK is available for purchase starting today and the 16GB will still be available for $249.
B&N also reduced the price of their NOOK Color ebook reader to $169 from $199.
The moves are a direct response to Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet which sold anywhere from 4 million to 6 million units in just a month and a half of 2011. The Kindle Fire is $199 and has 8GB of storage and 512MB of RAM.
B&N has made their intentions crystal clear with the new NOOK Tablet. They are matching the Kindle Fire specs and pricing in the hopes that they can match the sales too.