Barnes & Noble has launched its own electronic reader, “Nook”, on Tuesday in Manhattan. The device will compete with the Amazon’s “Kindle” and Sony Corp's Sony Reader among other electronic readers. These e-readers allow users to read digital information on a tablet-sized device.

Barnes & Noble is taking a leap into a crowded market dominated by the Amazon’s “Kindle”. Sony’s reader is the next most popular device, and other established products in this niche segment include readers from iRex and Plastic Logic.

With a competitive $259 price tag, the same as the Kindle's recently lowered price, Barnes & Noble could capture a great chunk of the market, giving a tough time to Kindle, which some critics say is a little lacking in design and functionality. It has a colour touchscreen display that would be believed a plus by some users, who would feel attracted and are already accustomed to higher functionality on devices such as Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch.

In July 2009, Barnes & Noble, the biggest brick-and-mortar bookseller in US, unveiled what it called the world's “biggest online digital bookstore” with more than 700,000 titles, readable on devices such as Apple Inc’s iPhone.

According to the analysts, Barnes & Noble's advantage could be in its physical stores where users would have the platform to test the device, as well as it enjoys strong relationship with publishers – a similar edge that Amazon also has. Somewhere close 3 million e-readers are projected to be sold in US during the existing year, with sales doubling up in 2010, according to Forrester Research.

In the security arena, shares of Barnes & Noble closed at $20.06 and rose 6 cents in after-hours trade.

According to its advertisement, “Nook” says that consumers will be capable of accessing more than one million e-books, newspapers and magazines. Around 500,000 of the books available at BN. com can be downloaded free of cost, through a contract with Google to offer electronic versions of public domain books, which Google has scanned from university libraries. These editions are currently not available on the Kindle.