Barnes and Noble Inc., the sole suppliers of Kindle’s competitor, the Nook e-reader, slashed prices of three different Nook models just last Sunday.

The 16GB Nook tablet can be bought for $199 - $50 cheaper than its previous price. The 8GB Nook tablet can be nabbed at $179, $20 less than before, and the Nook Colour is available at a price of $149, also $20 off its original price.

This news strategically precedes the start of the 2012/2013 scholastic year.

Insiders surmise that this price cut can be attributed to the 10.5% fall in revenue in the US in the fourth quarter.

While the Nook constitutes 27% of the e-book reader market in the US, Amazon’s Kindle remains dominant with a 60% market share.

On another note, rumours about a new Kindle version, the Kindle Fire, have surfaced, as have rumours about the iPad Mini (read di-ve’s article on the smaller iPad here: http://www.di-ve.com/technology/big-ipod-or-small-ipad).