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Waterstone's sets to rival the Amazon Kindle as it will launch an eReader next year.

The news comes from a BBC interview with Waterstone's MD James Daunt, who says the company takes inspiration from the Barnes and Noble Nook.

Daunt says the Waterstone's eReader is "well down the planning line."

The Amazon Kindle currently dominates the eReader landscape, with 35% EMEA 2010 market share according to IDC-- even if Amazon fails to release formal sales figures for the device.

Waterstone's will also allow customers to download ebooks from its 296 UK bookstores, like Barnes and Noble does in the US.

Go Waterstone's to Launch eReader

Dixons sales for for the 12 weeks ending 23 July 2011 decline by -1% Y-o-Y, while sales are down by -7%, following its Q1 trading statement.

The retailer says such performance "was in line" with expectations, particularly in comparison to the strong 2010 sales from the World Cup and the iPad launch.

Dixons' UK operations are performing "in line of expectations" (with total growth declining by -9%) as the KNOWHOW customer care service is now operating in the UK and Ireland.

It does see growth in the Nordics (with 5% growth), while International growth remains flat.

Online makes 14% of total group sales, and Dixons says multichannel sales growth is continuing.

Dixons now also has 71 Megastores open-- 32 of which in the UK.

Go Dixons Q1 Trading Statement

Bloomberg reports Samsung will "never" buy webOS, CEO Choi Gee Sung tells the press at IFA 2011-- with Samsung spokesman Nam Ki Yung echoing the sentiment from Seoul.

The confirmation comes in response to analysts saying Samsung was planning to make a webOS deal with HP.

A number of analysts speculate Samsung is not the only company showing intersest in the Palm OS-- Facebook and HTC might be planning to open their wallets.

Choi continues saying “it’s not right that acquiring an operating system is becoming a fashion.”

Samsung already has its own mobile OS after all-- Bada-- and is working “harder than people outside think” on software for it. Not to mention it is also working on Android and Windows Phone 7 devices...

Go Samsung Electronics Would "never" Pursue Purchase of webOS, Says CEO (Bloomberg)

DigiTimes reports Acer, Lenovo, Toshiba and Asus are limiting initial Ultrabook shipments to below 50000 as a means to test the waters, according to unnamed sources close to the vendors.

The reason? Doubts over whether Q4 2011 notebook demand will see recovery while Apple continues taking the market.

After all, Ultrabooks sit somewhere between 2 uncomfortable stools-- netbooks and laptops.

Intel is hosting an Ultrabook conference on September 14 in the hopes to both attract more notebook players and "resolve some technology bottlenecks."

Meanwhile IFA 2011 sees the launch of the first Ultrabook models, also from Acer, Lenovo, Toshiba and Asus.

Go Notebook Players Limit Initial Ultrabook Shipment Volume (DigiTimes)