MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Waterstones (UK biggest bookseller) to sell Amazon's Kindle book reader

soulfuldog · 05-21-2012, 01:09 PM

Kindles are never sold at a cheaper price in Tesco, they are always the same price as Amazon. The fact there is sometimes a £10 discount code available for spends over £50 or £75 at Tesco Direct has no effect on anyone that wanders into a store and buys a Kindle. So they'll be the same price instore at Waterstones as they are instore at Currys, Tesco etc. Therefore, there will be people who will pick them up and buy them. Why else would all these stores stock them if there wasn't money to be made from doing so?

It obviously makes sense for Waterstones to team up with a big player in the ereader market, and it does seem strange to hook up with a 'rival', but perhaps there's something in Barnes & Nobles tie up with Microsoft that Waterstones didn't like - more likely less money was on offer than with B&N pre Microsoft?

Perhaps they've just decided their best bet is to team up with the most popular ereader in the UK? They might be looking at the sales of the Kobo in WH Smith and think to themselves, Kobo has had to cut their price to try and compete with Amazon, we don't want to have to do the same?

Not quite so much Daunt selling his soul to the devil, but getting in bed with the devil to make some money!

As for what it means for their ebook store, is it feasible they could start to sell both epub and mobi?

05-21-2012, 01:09 PM	#15
soulfuldog I ♥ Calibre Posts: 2,073 Karma: 5678911 Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis, Voyage, Sony PRS-350, Hudl2	Kindles are never sold at a cheaper price in Tesco, they are always the same price as Amazon. The fact there is sometimes a £10 discount code available for spends over £50 or £75 at Tesco Direct has no effect on anyone that wanders into a store and buys a Kindle. So they'll be the same price instore at Waterstones as they are instore at Currys, Tesco etc. Therefore, there will be people who will pick them up and buy them. Why else would all these stores stock them if there wasn't money to be made from doing so? It obviously makes sense for Waterstones to team up with a big player in the ereader market, and it does seem strange to hook up with a 'rival', but perhaps there's something in Barnes & Nobles tie up with Microsoft that Waterstones didn't like - more likely less money was on offer than with B&N pre Microsoft? Perhaps they've just decided their best bet is to team up with the most popular ereader in the UK? They might be looking at the sales of the Kobo in WH Smith and think to themselves, Kobo has had to cut their price to try and compete with Amazon, we don't want to have to do the same? Not quite so much Daunt selling his soul to the devil, but getting in bed with the devil to make some money! As for what it means for their ebook store, is it feasible they could start to sell both epub and mobi? Last edited by soulfuldog; 05-21-2012 at 01:26 PM.