At the height of the holiday-shopping seas on, the low-cost Android tablet space is heating up. Barnes & Noble recently unveiled the Nook Tablet, a beefed-up follow-up to the popular Nook Color eBook reader/tablet. The Nook Color also remains in the company’s arsenal, but with a lower price. The Nook Tablet began shipping November 18.

Amazon, meanwhile, began shipping its first color touch-screen ereader/tablet, the Kindle Fire, on November15.

The big draw with these tablets is a tight focus on media consumption. The Kindle Fire taps into Amazon’s massive book store, newsstand, and MP3 and video stores, while the cloud-accelerated Silk browser promises to deliver speedy Web browsing. The Nook devices offer on-device access to millions of books and magazines via the B&N book store, and the Nook Tablet is pre-loaded with Netflix and Hulu Plus for video.

Both Amazon and B&N promise that you’ll be able to find your favorite apps. The Amazon Android App store is already considered a viable alternative to the Android Market place on other Android devices.

Another huge selling point: Price. The Kindle Fire and Nook Color both slide in under the $200 mark ($199 each). The Nook Tablet, at the higher $249, is still relatively inexpensive when you compare its price with current Android tablets from major manufacturers. B&N is hoping to justify the extra 50 bucks.