After Barnes & Noble dropped the prices of its Nook and Nook HD+ tablets to £79 and £129 to sell off the devices there was a lot of talk that it was pulling out of tablet production all together.

News came from a financial report last July which made it sound like Barnes & Noble was going to jettison the idea of releasing follow-ups to its colour tablets, Nook HD and Nook HD+, in favour of licensing the brand to third-party manufacturers. But we just spoke to the Jim Hilt, MD of Barnes & Noble, and he assures us is not the case.

"We intend to design, develop and build both products in the eReader and colour tablet space," says Hilt. "We're committed to developing products in both of these categories. We think it's critical to the innovation in digital reading - so you'll see us innovate in both product categories".

He went on to point out that the Nook range was being marketed at an affordable price so as to get the product to as many people in the UK as possible. It's one of several methods employed to ensure Nook remains competitive in a busy UK market. 

So we won't be seeing the back of Nook tablets anytime soon - which is good news. Pocket-lint is a particular fan of the Nook HD+.