Amazon’s Kindle e-reader will be getting more competition from a major bookseller overseas. Waterstone’s, which has nearly 300 retail stores across Europe, says it’s planning its own electronic reading device, following in the footsteps of Barnes & Noble’s Nook.
The news is making headlines today, and no doubt it will get the attention of some people at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters. It’s a sign of the mark Amazon’s Kindle has made on the publishing industry — still forcing traditional players to catch up.
But it’s hard to see it as a major threat to the Kindle, at least in the short term. The managing director of Waterstone’s, James Daunt, said in a radio interview that the product is deep into planning but won’t be released until the spring of 2012. PaidContent notes that the news “raises all sorts of questions over whether Waterstones has the size and digital muscle to make such a product work.”
