Barnes & Noble lowers price of e-book reader

US bookstore giant Barnes & Noble is cutting the price of its electronic book reader, the Nook, as Apple's iPad shakes up the fledgling market for digital reading devices.

Barnes & Noble said Monday it was lowering the price of the Nook with 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity to 199 dollars from 259 dollars.

Barnes & Noble also said it was introducing a Wi-Fi only version of the Nook for 149 dollars.

Amazon's e-book reader, the Kindle, sells for 259 dollars while the cheapest iPad, which features a color e-reader compared with the black-and-white Nook and Kindle, costs 499 dollars.

Barnes & Noble's chief bookstore competitor, Borders, also offers an e-reader, the Kobo, for 150 dollars.

Apple has sold more than two million iPads since the touchscreen tablet computer went on sale in the United States in early April and in nine other countries late last month.

Amazon and Barnes & Noble do not release sales figures for their e-readers.