Amazon has dropped the price of its basic e-reader even further to $259. The unit had originally debuted two years ago for $399. Additionally, an international version that costs $279 will now be made available in over 100 countries. The largest omission on the list however is Canada.

The company says they are working on a version for Canada and will make it available as soon as possible.

The growing e-book market would seem to dictate they do it sooner rather than later. Sales of e-readers are expected to top three million units this year, with Amazon holding onto 60% of that to Sony's 35%.

The Association of American Publishers report that sales for the first half of this year have more than doubled those from the same time last year to finish at $81.5 million, up almost 174%.

Whereas printed titles a few months ago were selling at the rate of 100 titles for every 35 of the Kindle version, that ratio is now 100 to 45. This in spite of some analysts' opinion that a sub-$99 price barrier needs to be broken to ensure the e-readers hit even more widespread adoption.

The upcoming holidays are also expected to impact sales further now that basic versions of e-readers are available for $199.