Best Buy switches emphasis to tablets, e-readers

In three years sales of e-reading devices at Best Buy have gone from nothing to $1bn in 2010 while sales of tablets and laptops have doubled to $20bn in the same period. Desktop computer figures have fallen from $9bn in 2006 to only $6bn in 2010. According to the Wall Street Journal, Best Buy will expand iPad distribution to all of its 1,094 US stores by the end of September. Best Buy Chief Executive Brian Dunn said that "people are willing to dispoportionately spend for these devices because they are becoming so important to their lives." During the next six month the company will major on tablet computers and e-readers as they become more fashionable and in demand. Equally, it will be radically paring back its former expansive selections of movie and music discs as consumers gravitate to digital entertainment purchases.