The $129.99 Kobo eReader Touch Edition will ship in June and comes in multiple color choices.

The day before Barnes & Noble is expected to announce a new e-ink e-reader, Kobo unveiled its own new e-ink model, the Kobo WiFi Touch Edition, for $129.99.

As its name implies, the new e-reader has a touch screen and uses the same Neonode infrared technology that's found in Sony's touch-screen e-readers. It also has E-Ink's latest generation Pearl e-ink screen.

Here's a look at the key specs:

I got a chance to play around with a prototype for the new device and found it to be very similar to Sony's PRS-650 Touch Edition e-reader, with a nice responsive touch screen. However, when I suggested that I expected a little more (speed-wise) from the new Freescale i.MX508 that powers this e-reader, I was told by Kobo reps that they were still optimizing the device.

The &39'quilted&39' backs come in multiple colors.

That said, the Kobo Touch Edition has a compact, elegant design, with only a couple of buttons (since this is a touch-screen e-reader, there's a built-in virtual keyboard). I didn't see a Web browser and like other Kobo e-readers, the device seems very reading-centric. It's also geared to the international market, with Kobo making a push into several countries, most notably Germany, which has the fastest growing e-book market outside the U.S.

It will be interesting to see what Barnes & Noble unveils tomorrow, but we may see a very similar touch-screen Nook at a very similar price point. We also expect Amazon to move to a touch screen for its next-generation e-ink Kindle e-reader, perhaps as soon as this fall.