WH Smith launches ‘Kindle killer’
Analysts are concerned the increasing popularity of electronic books poses a threat to WH Smith, where book sales are already falling. [Chief executive, Kate] Swann countered, however, that although high street demand for printed books “continued to be soft” the ebook market was still small, and that devices like the Kobo were aimed at heavy readers and early adopters.
“The reason that we’re moving aggressively into ebooks is because we believe if ebooks are ultimately successful that they’ll be incremental for us, given [that] our physical books customer base tends to be lighter book readers,” she said.
Boldfaced emphasis added by me.
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