According to The Wall Street Journal's (WSJ) Thursday report, retail book bigwig Barnes & Noble (B&N) - after having introduced an online e-book store in July - is currently working on its own e-reader, which will likely hit the stores next month!

As per the WSJ report, the forthcoming e-reader from B&N, which claims its online e-book store to have nearly 700,000 titles for a number of devices, would feature a touch screen, a virtual keyboard, and a black-and-white 6-inch display from E-Ink.

The device will be powered by Google's Android operating system, will offer wireless downloads, and run on AT&T's wireless network.

Going by yet another piece of information forwarded by a B&N representative, next spring, the company will also have a color touch-screen e-reader, which it is developing in association with Plastic Logic.

Though the B&N e-reader will come in time for the holiday season, the price of the proposed device - which has not yet been disclosed - will actually determine its success in the e-reader market led by Amazon's Kindle, which after a price-reduction this week sells at $259.

In case B&N can manage to beat the Kindle price, and if Sony can introduce its forthcoming e-readers starting at $199 as consumer electronics giant Best Buy has claimed; e-readers would possibly be on their way to become mainstream devices!