Kindle to be sold in Target stores in first for Amazon

(Amazon.com, Inc.)

US retail giant Target will begin selling Amazon's Kindle electronic book reader this month, making it the first store to offer the device Amazon has previously sold only through its website.

Target said Wednesday that the Kindle will be available at its flagship store in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and 102 stores in south Florida beginning on Sunday. It will go on sale in other stores later this year.

The basic Kindle will retail for the same 259-dollar price offered through Amazon.com, Target said in a statement.

The move comes nearly three weeks after Apple's iPad, seen as a potential rival to the Kindle, hit stores in the United States. The cheapest iPad is 499 dollars.

Analyst Jon Ogg of 247WallSt.com said Amazon's move was "an effort to undercut Apple."

"Target will be the first brick-and-mortar retailer to carry Amazon's Kindle," he said, but "you can bet that it won't be the last.

"Let the price wars begin."