In an evident endeavor to combat increasing competition, especially during the forthcoming holiday shopping season, Amazon Tuesday announced its decision to knock off $40 from the price of its Kindle e-reader, with the cost of its entry-level Kindle with a six-inch display coming down to $259.

This is for the second time in the last four months that Amazon has trimmed its e-reader's price. Earlier, in July, the cost of the Kindle 2 was 99 from $359. However, in spite of the recently-reduced price, the cost of the Kindle still remains $60 more than its closest emerging competitor - the entry-level Sony e-reader, Pocket Edition, which costs $199.

In addition to the Kindle price-reduction, Amazon also announced a new $279 premium "international" edition of the e-reader, which will likely be shipped to over 100 countries from October 19.

The "international" Kindle will help Amazon tap demand for e-books in the established e-reader markets.

Similar to its US-specific counterpart, the "international" Kindle will offer wireless service, from AT&T and its international partners, for downloading of books and periodicals.

About the international version of Kindle, Amazon. com Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement: "We have millions of customers in countries all over the world who read English- language books. Kindle enables these customers to think of a book and download it wirelessly in less than 60 seconds."