What mom wants to read on May 8

This Mother’s Day is shaping up to be a battle between Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook, with the popular e-readers featured on the cover of circulars from Target and Walmart that dropped this past weekend.

Target looks to be the early victor. It offered a Wi-Fi-enabled Kindle capable of holding up to 3,500 books for $114, while Walmart featured a Wi-Fi enabled Nook capable of holding 1,500 books for $149. For shoppers in the market for an e-reader this would seem to be an easy choice. Target is offering the more desirable brand from the industry leader and the featured product has greater storage capacity at a price that is $35 less than the Nook featured at Walmart. The situation is reminiscent of the marketplace for tablet computers. Not only are Apple’s iPad and iPad 2 phenomenally successful and highly coveted by consumers, they perform better and cost less than many of the newer market entrants looking to crack the market. The actual performance of the Kindle and Nook may not be all that significant, but assuming they are equal, the choice between a Kindle at $114 versus a Nook at $149 seems like a no-brainer.