There's little doubt that Amazon is expecting a big Holiday season with the recent release of its new Kindle Fire tablet. However, the excitement over the tablet hitting the first Holiday season could be tamped down a little by its biggest competitor. Earlier this month, Barnes and Noble announced that it was launching its own tablet. The company knows that Amazon has had a bit of a jump in the tablet market and because of this, the company has already begun shipping the Nook Tablet.

At times, the two companies appear to be like brothers, who feel the need to one up each other at every turn. Amazon began shipping the Kindle Fire earlier this week and Barnes and Noble has now said that the tablet they have billed as “better than the Fire” was shipping a day early. While both companies have their fair share of loyal customers, the Kindle has already beaten the Nook tablet as far as the price goes. The Kindle Fire is currently selling for $199 while the Nook Tablet is retailing for $249 apiece.

The Nook Tablet also seems to fall short when it comes what is included. While the Kindle Fire offers its own subscription services to watch movies and television shows, Barnes and Noble does not offer any similar of service. Luckily for those who love the Nook, this new tablet is preloaded with Netflix and Hulu (News - Alert) Plus apps.

Both tablets run the Android operating system. The Nook Tablet weighs less than a pound and has a battery powerful enough to watch video for nine hours straight without charging. The Nook Tablet comes with 16 MB of memory but that slight amount can be boosted thanks to a MicroSD card slot.

One benefit Barnes and Noble hopes its customers will recognize is that it offers free customer service at any one of its hundreds of brick and mortar stores. Barnes and Noble's CEO, William Lynch says that since Amazon is only an online store, they cannot offer the same kind of service.