Walmart to stop selling Amazon's Kindle line of readers and tablets

It's a lonely world when you've no storefronts to call your own. Shortly after Target decided it best to halt the sales of Amazon's Kindle products, it's being reported that Walmart is following suit. A quote obtained by Reuters suggests that Wally World's bigwigs won't be carrying Amazon tablets and e-readers "beyond the existing inventory and purchase commitments." And yes, that includes "all Kindle models current and recently announced." No actual reasoning was given beyond the conventional company line, but one has to wonder if Walmart isn't somehow considering getting into some of the businesses that it was previously helping Amazon push.

It's also taken a plunge with Vudu, as it's offering an in-store disc-to-digital UltraViolet conversion as well. You might say that Walmart would never, ever start hawking its own e-readers, but crazier things have happened -- Best Buy has an entire brand devoted to in-house goods, and Amazon itself has expanded from an online storefront for laundry detergent and bestselling novels to a bona fide hardware mainstay.

Walmart to stop selling Amazon's Kindle line of readers and tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Sep 2012 12:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.