Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS) Trims the Prices of its Nook e-readers

American bookstore chain, Barnes & Noble, Inc.(NYSE:BKS), on Sunday reduced the prices of its Nook devices, slashing the retail price of the Nook 16 GB tablet to $199 from $249.

The price of the 8 GB tablet has also been reduced by $20 to $179, while the Nook Color will now be available at $149, the company said.

The reduction in prices come just ahead of the peak school shopping season and also amidst talks that online retailer Amazon was readying to launch a new version of its popular Kindle Fire tablets.

Find Out How Should Investors Trade BKS Now?

The breakaway popularity of Google's Nexus 7 may also have had something to do with the steep price cuts. The price reductions bring the Nook e-readers on par with that of the Kindle Fire and the Nexus.

Amazon is the undoubted market leader in the e-book reader segment with its Kindle devices having a 60 percent market share, but Barnes & Noble's Nook devices are not far behind with a 27 percent share of the American market for e-books.

Being the smaller competitor Barnes has had to keep up with its larger rival by cutting prices and that has had an impact on its earnings margins.

The 7-inch Nook tablet was launched in November 2011 and has seen frequent price reductions.

Shares in Barnes & Noble, worth $833 million were down 1.2 percent at $14.14 on the NYSE.

You have read this article with the title Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS) Trims the Prices of its Nook e-readers. You can bookmark this page URL http://calliecountrychatter.blogspot.com/2012/08/barnes-noble-inc-nysebks-trims-prices.html. Thanks!