Nook Tablet Price Set at $199, Can Barnes & Noble Put Out Amazon’s (Kindle) Fire?

Barnes & Noble unveiled its new version of its tablet computer, the Nook Tablet, on Tuesday with a price set at $199, priced the same as its Amazon competitor. But can Barnes & Noble put out Amazon's (Kindle) Fire?

For a while, Barnes & Noble touted its Nook Tablet as the best bang for your buck for a 7-inch Android tablet, with double RAM and storage in addition to a long battery life of 11.5 hours. However, in order to accommodate a $50 price cut, Barnes & Noble decreased the storage to 8 GB and the RAM to 512 MB, specs in line with the Kindle Fire. The storage cut will negatively impact the amount of digital media users can store on the device, but users can purchase additional storage space using expandable memory card slot on the Nook.

While the results have not trickled in just yet, the cheaper model of the Nook Tablet will most likely negatively affect its performance due to the RAM cut, though the $249 version with one GB of RAM is still available for purchase.

The price cut comes as Barnes & Noble attempts to catch up with tablet sales with its competitor, Amazon. According to a report from IHS iSupply, Amazon was the number two supplier of tablets in the fourth quarter of 2011 with 14.3 percent market share, shipping 3.9 million Kindle Fires. Barnes & Noble ranked fourth with 7 percent market share for 1.9 million Nook tablets.

In addition, The Verge reported that beginning Feb. 22, Walmart and Best Buy will sell the 8GB Nook Tablet for $199, as well. The Nook Tablet is available for sale on the Barnes & Noble Web site beginning Tuesday.