With NOOK Tablet, Barnes & Noble Takes Aim at Kindle Fire and Apple's iPad

If you've noticed that Barnes & Noble has been clearing away books to make room for the NOOK, get ready for more redecorating on the selling floor as the bookseller takes aim on Amazon's $199 Kindle Fire this holiday season with its just-revealed NOOK Tablet.

Also, of course, looking to nibble at the iPad's market share, NOOK Tablet is described by B&N as "Our fastest, lightest tablet with the best in HD entertainment & more!" (including more than 2.5 million books, magazines, newspapers and other titles), the NOOK Tablet is selling for slightly more, at $249.

"With the Nook Tablet we are delivering the best media device ever created in a portable form factor," said Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch at a launch event in New York today.

B&N also lowered the price on its NOOK Color e-reader ("now just $199, with email, Web with video, thousands of apps & the hottest music services") and upgraded NOOK Simple Touch, "now better than ever and just $99, with the world’s best reading screen & the longest battery life."

To compare NOOK Tablet with Amazon's new Kindle Fire, check out its promo wooing tablet-shoppers: