Borders has also joined the e-book battle, after launching a new apparatus known as the Kobo and kicking off cloud-based service.

The six-inch display Kobo is available for $199 and can be bought online and from stores and is stocked with 100 free books that are mostly classic titles.

Borders proprietor, REDgroup Retail Managing Director, Dave Fenlon stated in a proclamation that more than 100 publishers were already onboard.

The Kobo supports ePub and PDF file formats and can store up to 1000 eBooks, which are expandable to 5000 with the insertion of an SD memory card. It uses eInk technology, with a battery life of two weeks, or 8000 page turns.

Despite its larger size, the Amazon Kindle DX, $US489 as of October 29, 2009, comes off as an astoundingly slant and elegant competitor in the present e-book reader steeplechase.

The Astak EZ Reader PocketPro is around the identical size as the Sony Reader Pocket Edition. Both have 5-inch, 8-grayscale E Ink screens and cost $US199, placing at the small and low-cost end of the e-book reader range.

The Sony Reader Pocket Edition is all about as reasonably priced as e-book readers currently with $US199 for a slender widget, with a 5-inch, 8-grayscale E Ink screen.