Across the pond, every bookseller worth its name has embraced e-book phenomenon with all the fervency. And then very suitably they
came out with their own e-book readers. Some of them actually morphed into mini tablets. The case in point is Nook Color, which now even has an app store. But things are getting heated up in the UK as well.
Bookseller Waterstone's has announced that it would be launching its own e-book reader soon. According to the company’s managing director, Waterstone's is all impressed with the success tasted by Barnes & Noble. He also said that Nook succeeded in providing stiff competition to Amazon’s Kindle and that the feat is truly inspiring. Waterfront is also planning to set up an ebook store. You can expect the store and reader to hit the market by 2012.
Waterstone's is currently shaking up its entire organizational structure. The book store had recently been acquired by Alexander Mamut, a Russian businessman. The business was earlier owned by HMV group. Under new ownership, the bookseller is in hurry to prove its feasibility. While, its new venture is a welcome step, but the bookseller would need to be cautious. After all, not all the booksellers had been able to make successful transition. Remember Borders?
Waterstone's is not exactly new to the game, as the book vendor had been offering e-books and e-readers since 2008. Though, it was working in collaboration with Sony. Unfortunately, its last foray failed to make much impact. Let’s just hope that its solo venture turns out to be successful. After all, there can never be too many e-readers.