Barnes & Noble cut prices on their 7-inch Nook Color and Nook Tablet products on Monday to stay competitive against rivals Amazon's Kindle Fire and Google's Nexus 7, according to reports.

Consumers can now pick up a Nook Color for $150, an 8GB Nook Tablet for $180 and a 16GB Tablet for only $200. The price cut is a $20 savings for the Color and the 8GB Tablet, and $50 off the 16GB Nook Tablet.

According to Information Week, Barnes & Noble's tablets are now "available for the lowest prices ever," said Jamie Iannone, president of the company's digital products group, in a statement.

"Customers can enjoy our best-in-class digital reading and entertainment experience with an expansive selection of digital content and apps at an unbeatable price."

Kobo, which powered Borders' e-book hardware and software until the bookseller filed for liquidation, also remains a player in the market.

Barnes & Noble says there are more than 2.5 million titles available for Nook, as well as movies and TV shows from Netflix and other content partners.

Microsoft and Barnes & Noble have struck a partnership in April to produce and distribute digital books through a new, yet-to-be named Barnes & Noble subsidiary that will include the bookseller's existing Nook e-book division as well as its college textbook business, according to Information Week. Industry observers say the venture could bring much needed competition to an e-book market dominated by Amazon.

Barnes & Noble also plans to release a Nook app for Microsoft's forthcoming Windows 8 operating system. Windows 8 tablets are expected to hit the market later this year.

Microsoft in mid-June said it will release its own Surface RT and Surface Pro tablets this fall, according to PC World.

Google's new tablet, the Nexus 7, is in the same class as Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet and the Kindle Fire.

The Nexus 7 currently sells for $199 (8GB) and $249 (16GB), which makes it in competition with the Kindle Fire, which sells for $199.

The competition will heat up even more once the Kindle Fire 2 comes out. In recent news, Amazon did recent updates to its Cloud Player digital music app.

Amazon announced a scan-and-match digital music service, which scans customers' iTunes and Windows Media Player libraries and then matches the songs on their computers to Amazon's song catalog, which includes 20 million tracks and counting. This goes in line with rumors about the release date of the tablet, which is supposedly set before the holiday season this year.

Various tech sources reported that Demos Pernernos, president of U.S. retail for Staples Inc., which sells the Kindle Fire tablet, said that Amazon will be introducing five or six new tablet SKU's (or stock-keeping units) this year. The report confirmed that the tablets will vary in size, and one will be at least 10-inches, and will rival with Apple's iPad and Google's Nexus 7.

Apple is reportedly coming out with the iPad Mini, which will feature a 7.85-inch display.

Production is slated to begin in August, according to CNET. If that plays out, the new iPad would be announced on September 12, which is the same day Apple will introduce the new iPhone 5.