Tablet War: Amazon Kindle Fire Vs. Barnes & Noble Nook Color

Tablet wars are heating up day by day. Online retailer Amazon announced its foray into the tablet space with the launch of its Kindle Fire tablet.

Amazon, which is known for its aggressive pricing strategy, doesn't disappoint as Kindle Fire would be available for $199, while the market was expecting a price of around $250.

At $199, the 7-inch Android based tablet is priced 60 percent below tablet competitors, as well as e-reader challenger Nook. The market was expecting a price range of $250 to $300 for the tablet, which runs on the Amazon's customized version of Android.

In addition, Amazon developed its own browser - Amazon Silk - for the device that would leverage Amazon's cloud computing infrastructure to provide faster Web browsing. As Amazon seeks to capture more of the video market, it has enabled Whispersync.

The tablet, which is available for pre-orders, would be shipped beginning Nov.15.

Kindle Fire's closest competitor would be Barnes & Noble's Nook Color Tablet. The Nook Color is a color version of the Nook e-reader device. It is a 7-inch tablet with full-color multi-touch touchscreen input and is designed for full-color viewing of books, newspapers, magazines, and children's picture books.

Barnes & Noble announced the product on Oct. 26 and shipped on Nov.16. The tablet runs on Android 2.2 and the Wi-Fi device comes for $249.

Similar to Kindle Fire, Nook Color has an 8GB memory and has no camera. Unlike Kindle Fire, Nook Color's onboard memory can be expanded up to 32GB by using a microSD card.

Barnes and Noble is said to be working on a successor to the Nook Color, tentatively titled the Nook Color 2, to challenge the Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet.

Following is a head-to-head comparison of Kindle Fire and Nook Color:

Operating System: Both devices run on Android. Kindle Fire runs on Amazon's customized version of Android, while Nook Color runs on Android 2.2

Display: Both devices have a 7-inch screen, multi-touch display with IPS (in-plane switching) technology and provide 1024 x 600 pixel resolution at 169 ppi and 16 million colors.

Dimensions: Kindle Fire has a dimension of 190 mm x 120 mm x 11.4 mm and weighs just 0.91 pounds. Nook Color has a dimension of 205 mm L x 127 mm x 12.2 mm and weighs 0.99 pounds.

Processor: Kindle Fire is powered by a dual-core OMAP 4 processor from Texas Instruments, while Nook Color has a Texas Instruments' ARM Cortex-A8 processor running at 800 MHz.

Camera: Both devices don't have camera.

Storage: Kindle Fire offers 8GB internal memory and no external memory. But it offers free storage of all Amazon digital content in the Amazon Cloud. Nook Color also offers 8GB internal memory, which is expandable via 32GB micro SD card.

RAM: Nook Color has a 512MB RAM, while there is no word on Kindle Fire's RAM.

Connectivity: Both tablets run on Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n

Media Formats Supported: Amazon's tablet supports Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX)), DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, non-DRM AAC, MP3, MIDI, OGG, WAV, MP4, VP8.

Barnes & Noble's tablet supports EPUB, PDF, XLS, DOC, PPT, MP3, MP4, AAC, PPS, TXT, DOCM, XLSM, PPTM, PPSX, PPSM, DOCX, XLX, PPTX, JPG, GIF, PNG and BMP.

Battery Life: Kindle Fire offers battery life of up to 8 hours of continuous reading or 7.5 hours of video playback, with wireless off. Nook Color's battery also allows reading for up to 8 hours without recharging with wireless off.

Price: Kindle Fire comes at $199, while Nook Color sells for $249.