B&N launching Nook Tablet to rival Amazon Kindle Fire

Consumers are avidly waiting for Amazon’s first Android multimedia tablet, the Kindle Fire, but according to Engadget there will soon be another book-friendly Android tablet on the market -- the Nook Tablet.

Consumers are avidly waiting for Amazon's first Android multimedia tablet, the Kindle Fire, but according to Engadget there will soon be another book-friendly Android tablet on the market -- the Nook Tablet.

'We've wrapped our paws around a stash of documents confirming the impending launch of the first bona fide tablet in the Nook line, and lo and behold, the Nook Tablet will end up being a dead-ringer for the Nook Color that already exists,' writes Engadget.

According to the technology blog, the Barnes & Noble (B&N) Nook Tablet will sport a 7' Vivid View IPS color touchsensitive display (with a resolution of 1024 x 600), a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, WiFi and around 8 hours of battery life when WiFi is switched off.

Engadget reports that the Nook Tablet will sell for $50 more than Amazon's Fire tablet but for that price it will offer access to B&N's expansive e-book library, twice the amount of RAM (1GB compared to the Fire's 512MB), double the storage (16GB compared to the Fire's 8GB) and will weigh in a few grams lighter.

The leaked documents indicate that the B&N Nook Tablet will be available for pre-order on November 7 for $249. The tablet will be available in stores on November 16 -- the day after the Kindle Fire will start shipping.

Additional documents acquired by Engadget suggest the price of the touch-enabled Nook (aka the Nook Simple Touch) will drop from $139 to $99 after November 16 and the price of the Nook Color will be reduced from $249 to $199 to directly compete with the $199 Kindle Fire price point.