Barnes & Noble unveils new Nook HD

Barnes & Noble's new Nook HD line, which offers beefed-up hardware and a new 9-inch tablet size is the latest addition to the plethora of competing devices in the hottest tech battlefield.

The 7-inch Nook HD starts at $199 for a 8 GB model, while the 9-inch Nook HD+ starts at $269 for 16 GB, with both tablets set to start shipping in late October. The devices are slated to be on store shelves in early November.

Among the new features included are a Nook Video streaming service, a "scrapbook" feature that allows users to save content like magazine pages, and the option to create device profiles for different family members. The Nook HD line operates on Google's  Android OS, and comes with a homescreen design that is much more streamlined than that of the previous Nook tablet.

Amazon.com Inc earlier this month unveiled its own HD tablets after launching its first last year, and said it had a 22 per cent share of the US market.

With the new Nooks, Barnes & Noble was also taking aim at Apple, whose iPad cost much more, as there was room in the market for a strong tablet at a lower price, according to Barnes and Noble chief executive William Lynch who spoke to Reuters.

Concerns about the Nook's long-term viability had been voiced last month after Barnes & Noble reported that Nook revenue including ebooks last quarter was up only 0.3 per cent, hurt by price decreases early in the summer, adding to the urgency for development of the new products.

Though price wars with Amazon have hardly helped, Lynch said the company was growing the digital content portion of the business, and that was where it envisioned making its economics.

Last quarter, Barnes & Noble had to fore go  business when it could not cater to the demand for Nook devices that allowed for reading in the dark, according to Lynch the company was now producing HD tablets in numbers sufficient to meet what it expected would be strong demand during the holiday period.