Amazon Kindle headed to a store near you
The battle for e-reader supremacy keeps ratcheting up, as the holiday shopping season near -- with Amazon's announcement this week that it will start selling the full line of Kindles at Target, Best Buy and other stores.
By lining up more than 16,000 retail outlets, Amazon will give consumers a chance to handle the Kindle in all its flavors, as well as to get assistance if something goes wrong. That puts the Kindle on a more equal footing with the Nook, which is sold through Barnes & Noble stores. And it should be particularly helpful for test-driving the Fire, a tablet version of the Kindle -- just as the Apple stores are convenient places to try out the iPad.
Amazon said that the Kindle line would be sold, starting November 15, "in any Best Buy, Target, Walmart, Staples, Sam’s Club, RadioShack, Office Depot, as well as several other retailers." It noted that the $79 Kindle has been available in stores since shortly after it was introduced. Mike McKenna, vice president for Amazon Kindle, said in a statement, “We’re excited to be working with popular retailers across the country to offer their customers Kindle Fire as well as Kindle, Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G this holiday."
I'm excited to see what's next in the seasonal battle. It reminds me of the great scene in "Miracle on 34th Street," when the executives of Macy's and Gimbels are trying to outdo each other with Christmas promotions. Classic.
Comments
How does that put it on more equal footing with the Nook? The Nook has been sold in pretty much all of those other retailers for the last year, and they'll all be carrying the new products BN put out as well.
And if you've ever sought support at Target or Best Buy for a Kindle, do you know what their answer is? "Call Amazon." Wow, in-store tech support, right there. Completely beats actually walking into a store and getting an employee to assist that has been trained with the device. Wait...
Not to say that the ereader thing isn't heating up, but Amazon has been playing catch-up for the last two years when it comes to customer service, technology, and compatibility. For most people, the question of which to get can be answered with "Which can I read my favorite books on?"
Well, Harry Potter (in ePub format) will be on the Nook. It won't be on the Kindle. And despite the discussion about specs and memory, Harry Potter (and books like it) will be big deciding factor.
Posted by: HeyHeyNow | November 10, 2011 9:51 AM
HeyHeyNow, I was referring to one of the biggest knocks about the Kindle -- that it was sold online. That point was repeated this week, when the Nook tablet was released. Now, Amazon has an answer. You make a good point about the HP books. Can you imagine buying a TV that only received some channels?
Posted by: Dave | November 10, 2011 1:48 PM
yay! It'll be in a couple of days now!
Posted by: Stu Pearson | November 11, 2011 5:51 AM
Good news :)
Posted by: Steve | November 11, 2011 5:37 PM