The rumored Barnes & Noble e-book reader is now reality. The bookseller on Tuesday announced its entry into an increasingly crowded market dominated by Amazon’s Kindle.

Dubbed nook, the Barnes & Noble e-book reader runs on the Android mobile operating system. It’s the first in the industry to offer a color touchscreen for navigation with access to a digital store that offers more than one million e-books, newspapers and magazines.

At no additional cost, nook users can tap into AT&T’s 3G wireless mobile broadband network or use Wi-Fi for book browsing. Barnes & Noble is additionally letting friends share e-books with Lend Me technology available on a selection of e-books.

“We asked our customers what they wanted in an e-book reader, and specifically designed nook to be the most full-featured, fun, stylish and easy-to-use e-book reader on the market,” said William Lynch, president of Barnesandnoble.com. “With our nationwide footprint, Barnes & Noble customers can see, touch and hold nook.”

A High-Tech Nook

About the size and weight of a paperback book, nook is the centerpiece of Barnes & Noble’s strategy to deliver any book, any moment, anywhere. A minimalist design aims to put the focus on composition rather than the technology. The device uses the E Ink Vizplex display, which is designed to be easy on the eyes with text resolution as good as a printed book.

Barnes & Noble is launching what’s called Reading Now, a virtual bookmark technology that lets you go back to the last book you’ve read and the page where you left off — even on another device. For example, whether consumers leave the nook at home, Barnes & Noble’s free e-reader software installed on an iPhone, choose BlackBerry and Motorola smartphones, and laptops, lets you find your place.

The nook can hold up to 1,500 e-books and other printed subject matter….

[Source] dhiram