Waterstone’s to launch an e-reader
Waterstone’s has announced plans to follow in the footsteps of Amazon by launching its own e-reader device and electronic book store.
The bookseller is hoping to launch the product in spring 2012 and plans to make it “substantially better” than Amazon’s Kindle.
Waterstone’s managing director James Daunt told the BBC’s You and Yours programme: “We in Waterstone’s need to offer you a digital reader which is at least as good, and preferably substantially better, than that of our internet rival, and you will have a much better buying experience purchasing your books through us.”
Daunt said that Waterstone’s was motivated by US based Barnes & Noble whose Nook e-reader has successfully gained a market share from Amazon. The company brought in $277 million worth of revenue from hardware and digital content sales in the last quarter.
Daunt said: “They run good bookshops that command the loyalty and indeed love of their customers and their customers choose to buy their reading in both physical and digital format through them — that makes perfect sense to me.”
Waterstone’s has yet to announce its manufacturing partner for the product.
