The Kindle 3 and Kindle DX will soon be offered at Staples (NASDAQ: STPS), an office supply chain. Staples joins Target as the second retail store to sell the e-reader. This is a good marketing strategy for Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) because they don’t have their own store to let customers try before they buy. Both Target and Staples offer in store options to try out the Kindle before purchase. Apple (NASDAQ: APPL) and Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) previously had the edge with the iPad and Nook on this strategy because they have their own stores.
“Staples is not just bringing this incredible product to our 1,550+ US stores, but we are offering customers a chance to discover first-hand Amazon’s revolutionary reading device,” said Jevin Eagle, executive vice president of merchandising and marketing at Staples. “As part of our efforts to offer customers a wide range of top technology products and services at amazing values, the new Kindle is a natural fit.”
The new Kindle has had rave reviews. The screen is 50% better, has twice as much battery life as its predecessor, is about 20% smaller and has faster page turns. The quicker page turns is one thing that I’m glad to see improved.
Staples is a great store. They sell really good quality products for good prices. I bought a desk there a few years ago and love it. This is a good place for the Kindle to be sold, considering the store’s technology focus and their commitment to good customer service.
Staples will offer:
Kindle Wi-Fi – $139
Kindle 3G – $189
Kindle DX -$379 (Will be available late Fall, 2010)
I haven’t been able to find much information on how well the Kindle has been doing at Target. By putting the e-reader in stores, Amazon is reaching out to the casual readers and cautious consumers not willing to risk purchasing anything online. Target is a major chain in the United States, but Staples has a global presence. For now, Amazon is targeting U.S. readers, but the international avenue is open to pursue if they decide to do so in the future. In terms of sales strategy, Staples is at an advantage because it will be putting the Kindle in its store just in time for the 2010 holiday season. For Amazon, having the Kindle in two major retail stores instead of one will be a big sales boost.
Hi, do you know of any Russian-English (not English-Russian) dictionaries available for Kindle? Thx!
Reader,
at the moment there are none, since Cyrillic support is only available on Kindle 3 at the moment.
As a disabled guy, getting hands on a kindle will be important to me. However, when I contacted Target both at the local store and their headquarters, Target could not give a clear answer if there will be hands on displays for kindle and if there will be a kindle person to help answer questions (Barnes&Noble gets this!). I get the sense Amazon is not willing to make the best effort to get Target to make the kindle experience a great one. Amazon needs to learn from Apple, now!
Lastly, Amazon needs to push back on publishers on clipping rights from their books. I am also a scholar and having DRM prevent me from direct quotes is a non-starter for me to buy a kindle. :-( I am not thief or a crook or a bad person, just wanting to work smart than hard studying a book. As now, I have no way of knowing what DRM limitations there are for an ebook I would buy from Amazon. Amazon wont give me a refund for a book that limits my clippings.
So when Staples gets them it, would there be any disadvantage to buying one there rather than from Amazon? Any difference in customer service, anything like that?
if you go into target or staples, do they have any people dedicated to any of their products (computers, cameras, calculators, furnature, paper, etc)???
and just like they have demo units of all of the other expensive electronics that they sell (if by no other method than having them in a glass case), I would expect them to have displays of the kindles.
I would not expect them to have a casio calculator person there, and I will not expect them to have a kindle person there.
As for the differences in customer support, yes there will definitely be differences in customer support, just like there is for everything else sold by these retailers and Amazon.
Now if you want to know which customer support will be better, that is something you will get a lot of differing opinions on (both in terms of which of the three is better, as what makes good customer support)
I would not expect either retail store to have the same display and on-hand expertise that B&N has, but B&N only has one electronic product to display.
I am pleased to hear that Kindles will be sold at Staple. I will pick up one for I had Kindle reading software installed on my I-phone. I bought over 40 kindle books and enjoy reading them very much, especially Kindle features.
I used both Kindle and Nook (B&N)…. I found Kindle carrying more cheaper books than E-books by B&N. However, some books are not available in Kindle format and I am forced to use both.
James
Any idea when the Kindle will be available at Staples or Target?
I work at Staples and we are currently setting our new fall promotions ans should be getting the Kindle in very soon. As of know it seems we will have a live display and no we do not have Kindle people but we do have trainings on new products that will give us an idea of how these producs work and specs on them. We will also have the live display so we can “play” with it to familiarize ourselves with it.