<p>Nearly three-quarters of a million e-readers were shipped from manufacturers to vendors worldwide between April and May this year, <a href="http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20100621PD210.html" target="_blank">Digitimes Research</a> suggests. </p><p>The figure comes as both Barnes &amp; Noble and Amazon reduced the cost of their dedicated e-readers in the face of competition from the iPad.<br /> </p><p>A total of 740,000 dedicated e-readers were sent out to retailers, with Barnes &amp; Noble&#39;s nook outstripping Amazon&#39;s Kindle, accounting for 37% of units compared with 16%. Global e-book reader shipments totaled 1.43m units in the first quarter of 2010. The figures do not include Apple&#39;s iPad. </p><p>Digitimes claimed Amazon was reducing its Kindle inventory ahead of the launch of a second generation e-reader in July or August. The new Amazon e-reader will still use e-ink, &quot;but picture quality will be better than the present Kindles&quot;, and production cost and &quot;street prices&quot; will also be lower.</p><p>Barnes &amp; Noble&#39;s 3G enabled Nook has come down from $259 (&pound;175) to $199 (&pound;135), with the 3G Kindle coming down from $259 to $189 (&pound;128).&nbsp;</p><p>Sony is also expected to launch a new e-book reader in July, while Barnes &amp; Noble will add one or two new models to its e-book reader lineup this year, Digitimes Research said.</p>