Daunt explains himself:
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/da...terstones.html
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On opting with Amazon and the Kindle, Daunt said it had been a choice between other devices “which have very little traction in this country”, and developing a Waterstones’ own device, which Daunt said the company had had “a highly limited” chance of doing. He said: “Effectively we felt we had very little choice but to do this.”
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Quote:
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Answering a question as to why, in doing a deal with Amazon to sell the Kindle, he had "given in" to the etailer's near monopoly rather than asking the authorities to investigate it, Daunt said: "They could still investigate it. We were utterly irrelevant to the sale of digital, and we had to become relevant. My job is to choose which books to sell to our customers, and applying the same principle to digital readers . . .
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"As you know, we were selling other devices when I arrived, and I kicked them out because, frankly, it was embarrassing. I mean they do sell multiple devices in places like John Lewis, there are all these Kindles lining up alongside one Kobo. For the moment, we are keeping it sensible. We will see how it evolves."
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Translation: His job is to sell books, print and digital. And if Kindle is what people are buying in the realm of digital, then Kindle is what he'll sell. He's going where the money is.
No different than Best Buy or WalMart--retailers of CDs and DVDs--carrying iPods and iPads, really. Even if iTunes competes with their CD/DVD sales. Smart retailers go where the money is and it sounds like in the UK the money is currently in Kindle.