Kindle 2 Now $189: Amazon’s Retaliation

This is absolutely classic. Barnes and Noble officially announced the release of their new WiFi-only Nook today for $149, and at the same time dropped the price of the 3G Nook down to $199.

If you do a news search for the term ebook reader or ereader, you get pages and pages all about the new WiFi Nook and lower Nook prices. The buzz is all over the web because, up until yesterday when Engadget first leaked the story, Barnes and Noble did a great job of keeping the actual release of the new Nook quite. So good in fact that they even managed to announce this before Amazon could preempt the new Nook’s release with an announcement of their own, as they are famous for doing.

So how does Amazon respond to this? Less than six hours after B&N issued a press release announcing their new plans, Amazon goes and drops the price of the Kindle 2 from $259 to just $189, beating the 3G Nook by $10.

The Kindle 2 originally retailed for $369 when it was first released back in February of 2009. Then they dropped the price to $299 around Summer. And then right about the time the Barnes and Noble Nook was first introduced in Fall of last year, Amazon dropped the price to $259, and announced the release of the Kindle International.

A Kindle at $189, with free 2-day shipping no less, is another huge step forward for the advancement and proliferation of ebook readers.