In the wake of price drops on the Barnes & Noble Nook and Amazon Kindle, Borders announced Tuesday that it would bundle its Kobo e-reader with a $20 Borders gift card.
The Kobo is priced at $149.99, while the smaller Libre eBook Reader Pro sells for $119.
Borders' shoppers normally get $5 in "Borders Bucks" after spending $150. With this promotion, people who buy a Kobo will also get $10 in Borders Bucks, in addition to the $20 gift card.
The company also released an app for the iPhone and iPad that will allow Kobo users to purchase eBooks content. To promote the release, users who show their Borders eBooks app on the iPhone or iPad will get a free coffee at Borders' Seattle's Best Coffee cafes for a limited time. The app is available on Borders.com.
On Monday, Barnes & Noble introduced a Wi-Fi only version of its Nook e-reader and dropped the price of its 3G device from $259 to $199. Hours later, Amazon dropped the price of the Kindle from $259 to $189.
Borders, however, insisted that its own gift card offer was unrelated to the Kindle and Nook price wars.
"Borders didn't feel compelled to dive into the discount wars with the Kindle and the Nook," a spokeswoman said in an e-mail. "Instead, the company is adding even more value to its offering for consumers, making it easy for anyone to pick up an eReader and start enjoying digital books."
"With two of the most aggressively priced eReaders on the market, we've already made clear our commitment to make it easy for every consumer to begin enjoying digital books today," Mike Edwards, CEO of Borders, said in a statement. "Now we are giving customers $20 and double the Borders Bucks to spend in-store or online -- it's an exceptional value for the serious reader."
Borders started taking pre-orders for the Kobo on May 7 and recently shipped a first round of the devices. A note on the Kobo Web site says its first shipment sold out and new orders will arrive on July 2.
Originally posted to Gearlog.