Though it already sells tablets from third parties, word on the street says UK supermarket Tesco might be working on a tablet of its own. Over the last 80 years, Tesco has grown from a general grocery store to a superstore selling clothes, books, DVDs, video games, consoles, petrol and mobile phone service. Now it looks like the company wants to sell a Tesco-brand tablet, too.
Engadget cites The Sunday Times in reporting Tesco will enter the hardware business with its own tablet sometime before Christmas of this year. Tesco hasn't commented on the rumor but it's said that the tablet will come loaded with content, including books, music, video and apps for shopping and banking with Tesco.
Though this would be Tesco's first tablet, it's not exactly surprising when you consider what Tesco has been up to over the last few years. In April of 2011, the company purchased an 80-percent majority stake in movie streaming service Blinkbox. In September of last year, the company announced plans to purchase online ebook store Mobcast in a deal rumored to be worth £4.5 million. London-based Blinkbox offers millions of users access to TV shows and over 9,000 films for both streaming and download via free (ad-supported) and paid-access plans. Mobcast offers a catalog of more than 130,000 titles for smartphones, tablets and ereaders, as well as a cloud service that allows customers to build up a library without being tied to one single device.
No word on specs or pricing, but we'll keep you posted.
