UK launch for Barnes & Noble ereaders and tablets

Barnes & Noble Nook ereaders and tablets will go on sale in the UK this autumn.

The US publisher's Nook Simple Touch and Simple Touch Glow Light ereaders and  Nook HD and HD+ tablets put the company in direct competition with firms such as Amazon and Sony, which already have a strong presence in this country.

Read more: Ebook news | Tablet and ereader reviews

However Barnes & Noble said that the lightness, price and performance of its products placed them in a strong position.

William J Lynch, the company's chief executive said the company's devices delivered "an exceptional customer experience and we enthusiastically encourage customers to go to nook.com and learn more about them."

Simple Touch
The Nook Simple Touch is priced at £79 and the £109 Simple Touch Glow Light are lightweight, feature extra-long battery life, a six inch anti-glare screen and built-in Wifi connection.

The Glow Light also has a fully adjustable integrated lighting solution for night time reading.

Both devices have a claimed battery life of over two months on a single charge if the Wifi and Glow Light are turned off. The devices have 2GB of storage (1GB for content, 750 MB reserved for B&N content) and use the open, EPUB format.

Able to hold up to 1,000 ebooks the devices have an expandable memory and people can also borrow from their local library and transfer and read personal EPUB and PDF files.

Nook Tablet
The company's tablet computers for sale in the UK are the 7 in Nook HD and 9 in Nook HD+. The company claims that the HD model has the "world's highest-resolution ever on a 7in tablet and NOOK HD+ rivals the industry-leading tablet's display."

Both tablets run Google's Ice Cream Sandwich version of the Android operating system with the 16 GB or 32 GB Nook HD weighing 11.1 ounces (315 grams) and the larger 16 GB and 32 GB NOOK HD+ weighing 18.2 ounces (515 grams). Both devices also feature expandable memory using a separate microSD card (up to 64GB).

Although users will be able to access some third-party apps, Barnes & Noble have restricted what can be sold to protect against malware.

Starting at just £159 for the Nook HD 8GB model and £189 for the 16GB version with prices for the Nook HD+ of £229 for the 16 GB and £269 for the 32GB model.

How Barnes & Noble fare against companies such as Amazon, which recently announced its Kindle Fire will go on sale in the UK in October, as well as Kobo and Sony and the major tablet manufacturers is to be seen.

But the company plans to launch a video service offering movies and television shows early next year.

The Simple Touch devices can be pre-ordered on the Nook UK site now before they go on sale in shops such as John Lewis, Argos, Sainsbury's, Dixons, Waitrose, Blackwell's and Foyles in October.

The tablets can be pre-ordered later in October and will be in stores in November.