In today’s Android tablet market, many manufacturers are learning from the success of the Kindle Fire and moving towards a more affordable pricing model. The majority of Android tablet failures have come from over pricing for essentially a device no one really needs. In order to entice a customer to purchase an in-between device such as a tablet, they need to be affordable — and at the very least, cheaper than a laptop (which undoubtedly blow tablets out of the water in terms of hardware and software). They’re portable content consumption machines, but in order for that content to get consumed, they need to get in the hands of the consumers. So how do you do that? Ask Amazon.

Up next, I’m going to take a look at Samsung’s latest answer to a budget friendly Android tablet that not only comes in at just above $200, but is also running the latest version of Android: Ice Cream Sandwich.

When we got wind of an 8GB Nook Tablet hitting Walmart stores this Wednesday we wondered when or if Barnes & Noble would make an official announcement. Well, that day is today and they have officially taken the wraps off of their cheaper 8GB Nook Tablet model. You’ll be getting all the same features as the 16GB model minus 8GB of storage and 512MB of RAM. The good news is it will only cost $199 and be on point with the Kindle Fire as one of the best priced tablets money can buy. Barnes & Noble also announced a price drop in the Nook Color, which is now being offered for $169. For the full details check out the press release after the break.

Barnes & Noble isn’t happy that the Kindle Fire has gobbled up tablet market share while their Nook Tablet is the better spec’d tablet. While the Nook Tablet costs only $50 more than the Kindle Fire, it looks like that $50 makes all the difference. To better compete against the Kindle Fire, Barnes & Noble has decided to release an 8GB version of their Nook Tablet at the same price as the Kindle Fire. According to an internal Walmart document obtained by The Verge, this 8GB Nook Tablet is set to hit stores this Wednesday.