Nook tablet prices cut for second time in two months

Tablet bargain hunters can get a good deal from Barnes & Noble - again.

The world's largest bookseller began sellingits Nook Color and Nook Tablet at reduced prices Sunday in advance of the arrival of its Nook HD slate this week. It's the second time in the last two months that the company has lowered the prices on those 7-inch tablet models.

The Nook Color is now selling for $139. The 8GB Nook Tablet is now priced at $159 and the 16GB model is $179.

Barnes & Noble had previously reduced the prices of those tablets in August to $150 for the Nook Color, $180 for the 8GB Nook Tablet and $200 for the 16GB version of the slate.

Those B&N models are the only ones to experience price cuts in recent weeks.

In September, the bookseller reduced the price of its Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight to $119 from $139. That price cut was largely attributed to the introduction of a competing product by Amazon, the Kindle PaperWhite, which also sells for $119.

The latest version of B&N's tablet lineup, the Nook HD, is expected to start reaching retail shelves this week.

Pre-orders for the device began shipping last week, although early birds got a jolt when an erroneous email was sent to them stating that the slates couldn't be shipped until Dec. 1.

The Nook HD is selling for $180 in an 8GB configuration and $200 for the 16GB version.

The 7-inch B&N unit separates itselffrom its competitors with its high-resolution screen, which supports 1440-by-900 pixels and has a density of 243 pixels per inch. That compares to 1280-by-800 pixels (216 pixels per inch) for Google's Nexus 7 tablet and 1024-by-768 pixels (163 pixels per inch) for Apple's new iPad Mini.

Barnes & Noble, which formed a new subsidiary in April that included its Nook business and received $300 million in capital from Microsoft, has been steadily building out its Nook ecosystem, which includes 3 million books, magazines, newspapers and children's books. It has also added video streaming to its content offering with Nook Video-On-Demand , which includes content from major TV and movie studios, such as HBO, Sony, Warner Bros., Viacom and Disney.