Yet another US retailer has struck a deal to sell Amazon's Kindle e-book reader tablet. Consumer electronics "big box" retailer is going to begin offering the device this fall in its thousands of stores.

While Best Buy isn't the first retailer to put the Kindle on its shelves, it is going to be the biggest. The company has thousands of stores in the US and internationally. The timing could also help Kindle sales, as Best Buy is a major destination for holiday shopping. Stumped shoppers (or those not wanting to make another trip) could be inspired to pick up a Kindle as a gift.

Which leads to another question; could the move help to expand the Kindle's audience demographic? So far the reader has mostly appealed to the tech-savvy early adopter crowd. But when it's on a store shelf, could it appeal to new audiences, such as older users?

And finally, could this be the beginning of a larger move into retail by Amazon? Certainly the company has the inventory and structure to open up its own stores. Could we eventually see a move to its own branded retail stores much like Apple or Sony?

10 Sep 2010