8GB Nook Colour launches this week to dampen Kindle’s Fire

The current king of budget tablets, leading with a fiery software kick courtesy of Amazon, is the Kindle Fire. This 7-inch beauty has seen very little competition in the same price and hardware division, until now that is. Nook, the eternal runners up in the tablet wars will launch an 8GB tablet this week.

The new 8GB Nook tablet will be released first in the US at an unspecified price. Here’s hoping that it’s at least US$50 cheaper than the US$200 Kindle Fire, else it’s potentially destined for the bargain bins.

Budget colour tablets are a dime-a-dozen, but somehow Amazon has managed to turn the Fire into a household name. Can it be put purely down to price? Hell yeah.