Amazon has now brought out a 3G model of its Kindle with Special Offers and has priced it to be the cheapest on the market, playing leapfrog with reduced price announced yesterday for the 3G Nook.

From today US customers will be able to buy a 3G Kindle for just $164 - that is for $5 less than the Barnes & Noble Nook for which a price reduction to $169 was announced yesterday.

The newest member of the Kindle family comes "with Special Offers" but although this also implies "with advertising" in fact the market has embraced the wifi Kindle with Special Offers introduced last month at a price of $114.

Similar ofers, including $10 for a $20 Amazon.com Gift Card, $1 for a Kindle book and spend $10 on Kindle books and get a free $10 Amazon.com Gift Card are being made available on the 3G model and they have already proved a tempting lure.

Amazon has used the same $50 differential between the lower-priced Wi-Fi only and higher-priced 3G plus Wi-Fi model as with the "normal models", which remain at $189 for the Kindle 3G+Wi-FI and $139 for the Wi-Fi only model. This $50 gap was also employed by Barnes and Noble for its reduced prices on the remaining stocks of its original Nook models.So which is the best buy?

If you want the convenience of 3G, which means you can download new titles anywhere without having the expense of a 3G connection, then you can pay $169 for an obsolete Nook or pay $5 less and put up with being subjected to some money-saving offers - even though I don't like in-your-face advertising I think I can put up with a limited amount of that.

And if you want a Wi-Fi model Amazon is still the cheapest - which makes you wonder why Barnes & Noble missed its chance to undercut them yesterday.

Related articles:

Touchscreen Nook e-reader unveiled

Kindle with ads - is that a good bargain?