Asda has launched an e-reader for £52 that is likely to spark a price war in the growing market.
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At £52, the grocer’s 5 inch View Quest Mediabox is priced at less than half the price of Amazon’s popular device, Kindle, which is priced at £111 without 3G and £152 with. 3G allows users to download books on the move.
Asda’s version features ebooks, music and videos.
WH Smith offers the next cheapest ereader, at £59.99.
An analyst at TechEye.net told the Daily Mail that comparing Asda’s device with the Kindle could be like “comparing a steak to an Asda basic pork pie”.
But an Asda spokesman said the retailer wants to provide “affordable literature” and said that the Asda version plays movies, whereas Kindle does not.
Amazon has dominated the ebook market. Last month it revealed that US sales of ebooks had overtaken those of paperbacks for the first time. It sells 115 e-books for every 100 paperbacks in the U.S.
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