Barnes & Noble Inc unveiled the latest iteration of its Nook e-reader, featuring a colour touch screen and Wi-fi web browsing, as it seeks to catch up with industry leader Amazon.com's Kindle in the race for market share in the growing digital books arena.The Nookcolor, built on Google Inc's android operating system, is now available for $249 for pre-order online, or at Barnes & Noble stores. The product will begin shipping around November 19.                                            Barnes & Noble, Chief Executive William Lynch said at the product launch in New York that the company has already sold over 1 million Nooks so far and the sale is expected to double soon.                                            Barnes & Noble, which has contended with years of sales decline in physical books, is staking its future on its ability to adapt to digital bookselling. It has committed $140 million in developing the Nook this fiscal year.                                            Forrester's (a market research company)  research analyst James McQuivey said the Amazon''s decision to not include functions those found on Apple Inc's iPad computer tablet -- which includes e-reader capabilities -- has given Barnes & Noble an opening."The big holes left in the market are the gaps between today's e-readers and the Apple iPad," McQuivey said."Nook has been successful because Barnes & Noble brings book buyers through its doors every day," he said. 

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Forrester research estimates that Barnes & Noble will sell 2 million Nook devices by the end of 2010.But this is still far behind Amazon, which Forrester expects to sell 6 million units, with the US e-reader market share greater than 60%.                                            Barnes & Noble, won a proxy fight with dissident shareholder Ron Burkle last month , and put itself up for sale in August, is hoping the company will be more valuable because of the new Nook.                                            "The value comes obviously in the growth component, and not in the company that's been going sideways for years," chairman and founder Leonard Riggio told Reuters on the sidelines of the launch.